Page 17 of The Shadow Path (Shadowlands #2)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

G odrik glared at the small fae woman and the willowy man with the bright blue sigils on his face. “I don’t like this.”

Dru, for his part, seemed unbothered. “Of course you don’t. My brother is the one who slaughtered the wolves of Ireland, and ancestral memory runs deep.”

“Dru has done nothing to you or your people,” Naida said. “Do you want us to examine the old fort or not?”

Carys, Duncan, Laura and the two fae had flown by coracle to Godrik’s home territory north of London. The hills were rolling and green, and large settlements crawled along the many rivers and inlets that led to the ocean.

There were sheep everywhere, along with large mills and modern but primitive factories. Cadell told her much of the wool fabric that was exported to the continent came from Godrik’s home territory, and Carys could see why.

It was a prosperous region dotted with forests, and they were standing in the middle of one. In front of them, a large, grass-covered mound rose up among the oaks and the yews, an old fae fort that Godrik claimed had changed the most over the previous year.

“This has to be at least twelve feet higher than it was a year ago,” Godrik said, still keeping one eye on Dru. “Before that? Not even the oldest wolf in our clan remembers fae here.”

“No.” Dru stepped closer, his eyes narrowing on the green mound. “The invaders built with stone and cut down trees.” He took off his leather boots and walked toward the mound. “You built great halls and wore shoes on sacred ground. Of course the old fae abandoned it.”

“We had people to feed and clothe,” Godrik said. “We can’t conjure riches by magic. Were we supposed to live in the mud? That’s what the fae want, isn’t it?”

“Not what I want, wolf.” Dru stared at the ground. “Fae are not a monolith any more than humans or wolves.”

To Carys’s eyes, the landscape around them was verdant and lush, but on closer inspection, she could see traces of humanity everywhere. Stone walls and willow fences. Cobbled highways and mill after mill after mill. If they were run by smoke and steam instead of waterwheels, there would be black smoke staining the air.

“This fort is old.” Naida bent down and dug her fingers into the soil. “It’s had time to rest. I feel new life here. Along with something very, very old.”

Cadell and Duncan stood at a distance speaking quietly while Laura and Carys walked with Naida.

“What has changed?” Dru sank his feet into the ground as he approached the mound, and as he walked, the grass grew up around his feet. It was the coolest and weirdest thing Carys had seen in a long time.

“The height, of course.” Godrik walked with him. “And strange plants we don’t normally see.”

Birds clustered around them, singing in a riot of song as they swooped through the air as if in celebration of the fae prince’s visit.

Naida waded into the brush next to the path and bent down. “This type of foxglove is unusual in Anglia.” She looked up. “Dru, did you see the blackthorns?”

“I did, my love.” Dru was looking at the ground, frowning at something he saw in the grass, when a small bright creature flew to his shoulder and alighted with a dreamy flash of gold wings.

“Hello there.” Dru smiled and angled his head to the side. “What’s that you want to tell me?”

“It’s a sprite,” Carys whispered to Laura. “See its wings? How they glow? Probably a tree sprite. They’re related to the water sprites we saw by the river.”

The small creature looked like a tiny fairy with a tuft of nut-brown hair, a body that appeared to be covered in leaves, and bright flashing wings that beat as quickly as a hummingbird’s.

It leaned up to Dru’s ear and whispered something that none of the rest of them could hear before it flew away as quickly as it had come.

Dru’s eyes followed the sprite as it disappeared into the trees, then spread his arms and held his hands out flat. “Humans and wolves, back away from the mound slowly.”

The fae man started backing away himself, but Godrik didn’t move.

“What?” the wolf asked. “What did that wild fae tell you?”

Carys heard Cadell’s voice in her mind. Nêrys, we should not be here.

“Cadell says we shouldn’t be here,” Carys whispered to Laura and Naida, who had joined them on the path.

“That tree sprite is a friend and a generous messenger; you should have more respect.” The blue sigils on Dru’s face glowed, and his voice lost its usual amusement. His voice dropped to a whisper. “Come away from the mound, wolf.”

“Or what? It will open up and steal me away?”

Dru’s eyes rose to the top of the mound where cracks were starting to appear in the earth. “We were mistaken; this isn’t a fairy fort.”

Godrik finally realized that Dru was serious and stepped away from the earthen structure. “What is it?”

Dru backed up slowly, his arms outstretched and his eyes locked on the grassy mound, which was starting to move. The grass beneath his feet crawled higher and higher, nearly to his waist.

“I don’t know his name,” Dru said, “but he’s something far older than you or me or any of our companions. Back. Away.”

“Laura, I think we need to get back to Cadell and Duncan.” Carys gripped her hand and turned, but a burst of movement at the top of the hill made her turn back to the rising earth, and the rumble of the ground beneath her feet stole her breath and froze her in her tracks.

Naida stepped forward and her eyes went wide. “It’s a forest god.”

A stony head ringed with grass rose from the earth, the god stretching its shoulders and rising as dark soil poured off it like water.

Its eyes were black rock, and what might have been a mouth stretched and opened as a primeval groan that sounded like grinding stone emanated from the creature’s gaping jaw.

Flowers sprang up on the crown of its head, and as it rose to its full height, moss and grass crawled over its earthen body like a moving green robe.

Carys couldn’t look away. “Oh my God.” It was the most fascinating and frightening thing she’d ever seen.

Dru looked over his shoulder and shouted, “Run! All of you, run!”

Nêrys!

She felt a tugging in her chest and turned to see Cadell dissolve into a shower of gold before emerging in his dragon form with a terrifying roar. His green, iridescent body shimmered from the fire already burning at his throat.

He rose up on his back feet, nearly as tall as the forest god, and spread his wings as he let out a bellow.

Godrik let out a terrifying snarl that pulled Carys’s eyes back to the forest god. The wolf’s human body disappeared, and his beast form burst from a shimmering grey fog and lunged toward the green giant, who lifted a trunk-like leg and kicked the massive wolf into the trees.

The crunch of wood told Carys that the trees had broken as much as the wolf might have.

“Carys, get out of there!” Duncan shouted from the edge of the clearing, running toward them with his hand on the hilt of his steel sword.

The ground lurched beneath her, as if something was emerging from the deep, and she fell. Her ankle twisted when it caught between two rocks in an open crevice.

“Carys!” Laura ran to her and tried to pull her up.

“I can’t move. It’s stuck.” She felt her heart racing. “Oh shit.”

The ground was rolling and jumping every time the forest god moved.

Nêrys, come to me.

“I can’t, I’m stuck!”

Cadell breathed a stream of fire across the tops of the trees, and the forest god took a massive step forward toward the dragon, bellowing something that sounded like boulders scraping against rocks.

The earth rolled as he walked. He didn’t have feet, but his legs were planted into the soil like tree roots that curled and twisted like tentacles as he stepped from the footprint of the old fae fort and into the forest surrounding him.

Cadell stood on his hind legs, bellowing and trying to draw the giant’s attention away from the humans and fae at his feet.

And Dru stood in front of the ancient creature, his shoulders back and his face defiant.

Duncan ran and reached down into the crevice, folding his massive hands around her ankle and pulling gently but firmly. “It’s twisted, and it’s starting to swell.” He looked up, and his eyes were wide and panicked. “I can’t break the rocks.”

“They’re rocks .” Despite everything, Carys had to smile. “Even you’re not strong enough to break rocks, Duncan.”

“Damn it!”

“I’ll try to move it from here.” Laura’s eyes darted between the forest god and Carys. “Maybe the earth will listen to me.”

She put her hands in the ground and began to whisper as Duncan continued to try to pull her leg from the narrowing crevice.

Nêrys? Cadell was shouting at her mentally. What is happening?

My foot fell into one of the crevices, and it’s stuck between two rocks. Duncan and Laura are with me.

I’ll keep him moving. Perhaps if the earth shifts again, it will loosen.

Cadell took to the sky, soaring over the forest god’s head and drawing his attention up and over the trees, before he swooped back and circled the forest.

Trees and bushes cracked as the giant moved. Birds flew out of the treetops in panic, and animals and creatures that had been sheltering in the woods ran and scattered.

Deer bounded from the shadows, furtive lynxes darted away, and rabbits raced into the meadows and country lanes. A pair of unicorns fled from the shadow of the trees, glancing over their shoulders as they ran away. A flurry of glowing sprites followed them.

“Nothing yet!” Duncan continued to keep her ankle in one firm hand while he shoved the tip of his sword into the ground to try to dig around the rocks. He glanced over his shoulder at the roaring giant who was watching the dragon swoop around his head. “I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s a nightmare.”

While Cadell was flying, Dru spread his arms and the ground around him answered. Two columns of earth shot from the pathway in front of him and jabbed at the forest god, knocking the giant creature off-balance for a short time before he turned, opened his massive maw, and bellowed at the earthen spears before him.

When the forest god opened his mouth, living earth poured from the gaping cavity like drool from a dog’s mouth. It appeared as if his teeth were made of white stones, his beard was dripping moss, and though he had no tongue, the earth itself moved within his mouth, crunching and grinding as the creature roared in anger.

The god brought his great arm across the stone columns Dru shot toward him, bashing and breaking them as if they were made of sand.

Twisting roots made up the architecture of his arms, and curled branches that ended in bunches of verdant-green leaves took the place of hands. When he reached, the branches curled and twisted toward the ground, grabbing a twisted blackthorn tree and pulling it from the forest.

The giant lifted the tree and swung it toward Dru like a slow-moving sword, but the fae prince ducked and let out a roar of laughter.

“Look at you, old man!” Dru shouted. “Ah, for the love of the old gods, you are a gorgeous thing, aren’t you? I haven’t seen your like in five hundred years.”

“Dru!” Naida shouted at him. “Get away from it!”

Cadell was still flying around the giant’s head, trying to draw his attention. No bellowing, no fire. He watched the massive creature with wary gold eyes.

I do not want to harm him, Cadell said in her mind. We are trespassing on his home.

If you leave, will he calm down?

Perhaps, Cadell said. But I cannot leave you.

Carys looked down at her stuck and twisted leg, then at the forest around them. The ground was ripped and bare roots exposed. The forest god might have been the one who had planted this forest and made it grow, but now it was the one destroying it.

Creation was destruction was creation. In the oldest stories, you often couldn’t separate one from the other. They were inextricably linked. Like a forest fire, this old god’s fury might be the very thing that made this forest renew.

Nêrys, his corporeal form does appear to be made of branches.

I understand.

Branches were wood. Branches could be burned by dragon fire.

Carys had a vision of the forest god tromping along the Essex countryside, kicking at sheep, squashing humans and animals like bugs, and tearing up wool mills as it ripped up the roads and fences that scarred the land.

Then she had a vision of the old god twisting with fire, his verdant-green cloak turning black and his massive leg-trunks burning to ash.

Don’t burn him. Not yet.

Carys shouted at the ellyllon. “Naida!”

She was standing on the edge of the forest, her back to an ancient oak and her arms spread out, as if she could keep the trees safe from the marauding forest god. “What?”

“Dru said he woke up.”

Naida’s eyes were wide. “Obviously yes.”

“So can we put him back to sleep?”

Duncan looked up and glared. “What the fuck are you talking about? It’s not a baby!”

“Maybe.” Naida walked to the tumult of the clearing where the ground rippled and rolled and put her hands on the churning earth.

A bloody Godrik in wolf form was limping from the trees, his teeth bared at the forest god, snarling and howling.

In the distance, the faint echo of other howls came back. One, then two, then a dozen.

“The wolves are coming,” Duncan said. “This is going to get messy.”

“Nothing.” Laura gasped and looked at Carys. There were tears in her eyes. “The earth is so confused right now. I can’t connect at all.”

“It’s okay.” She could feel her heartbeat in her leg as it swelled. There was pain, but she had so much adrenaline coursing through her system she barely felt it. “If we can’t move the rocks, Duncan has his sword.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Duncan roared.

Dru paced back and forth in front of the massive creature for a few moments as the god shook his grassy head and looked around the landscape that surrounded them.

“He looks confused,” Carys said.

“Dru said he hadn’t seen his like in five hundred years.” Duncan was smashing the hilt of his sword against the rocks holding Carys’s leg, and his palm was bloody. “Can you imagine how bloody confused you’d feel after a five-century nap? Fuck!” He tossed his sword to the side and reached his massive hands down into the crevice, trying to move the stones with his bare hands.

“Duncan.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s going to be okay.”

He looked up and his eyes were red. “Not if you’re hurt.”

Dru shouted something at the forest god in a language Carys didn’t recognize, but it caught the creature’s attention, and the green face peered down to the ground to look at the fae prince.

“What is he doing?” Laura asked.

The giant leaned over, his head angled as he watched Dru like he would a bug.

Dru shouted again, and it wasn’t Cymric, éiren, or Alban at all. This was some older tongue that had the god paying attention.

“Maybe they have their own language,” Carys said. “Maybe the gods have another language and Dru knows it because of his father.”

“Dru, tell him to let Carys go!” Duncan shouted.

“Shhhh,” Laura said. “Don’t distract him.”

The god, staring at Dru, opened his mouth, and a slow, deep roll of sound issued forth.

“Oh my God, that thing is speaking,” Duncan whispered. “Those are words.”

They were words spoken at the pace of a geological event, but sometime later, the forest god finished speaking and Dru said something else.

“What is he doing?” Carys asked.

“I have no idea.” Naida walked toward them. “But I can feel the animals coming back. Carys, what’s wrong?”

“She’s stuck.” Duncan began to dig around the rocks again. “It’s like her foot is encased in bedrock somehow.”

Carys heard the birds first. They flew in giant flocks, settling in trees and singing loudly, as if they had stories to tell. A few moments later, a pair of deer poked their head into the forest, and two fawns followed them.

The forest god saw them, and something about the ancient and stony face softened. He moved toward the footprint of the old mound where he’d been sleeping and sat down, his knees bent up and his long, branchy arms reaching out to welcome the birds that came to fly through his branches. He let out something that seemed like a sigh, and bright white flower petals filled the air, falling over the broken earth like snow.

Dru was still speaking, and the cadence of his words was nearly a song.

The fae is lulling him back to sleep, Cadell said.

Carys smiled. “And it’s working.”

“What?” Duncan asked.

“Whatever it is Dru is doing.” She rested her cheek on Duncan’s shoulder. “Look, he’s calmed down.”

As the forest god sat and rested, Cadell landed at a distance. He didn’t shift out of his dragon form, but he settled on the ground and curled his wings back.

Godrik, too, sat on his haunches, watching Dru as he spoke softly to the giant.

“Naida.” Dru reached out his hand.

Naida whispered, “Just stay still. I’ll help you in a moment.” She stepped forward and walked to the fae prince’s side. Without a word, she opened her mouth and began singing.

Carys didn’t recognize the song, but the forest came alive.

Ground churned up by violence smoothed and settled. The earth beneath her seemed to sigh, and the rocks that gripped her ankle released.

“Yes!” Duncan gently pulled her leg from the ground. “Thank God. Thank you, God.” He bent down and kissed Carys’s scraped knee. “Oh lass.” He wrapped a hand around her ankle and Carys winced. “Sorry,” he whispered.

Duncan pulled her into his lap and held her as Naida sang.

The new dips and mounds that the giant had pulled up didn’t smooth, but grass grew over them and moss covered the open wounds of trees and bushes marked by the footsteps of the forest god.

Birds and sprites flew over the forest giant as he settled and slumped on the ground, heaving a great sigh that had vines and moss crawling over his rocky shoulders like a green blanket.

Minutes passed, animals crept back into the forest, and Naida’s voice grew softer and softer.

The forest god closed his hollow black eyes and laid his body down, melting into the forest as the moss and grass grew over him and the trees stretched up toward the sky.