Shadows in the Trees: Book 1

Chapter 13

Freya's awareness crept back to her slowly. Her eyelids were too heavy to open, but there was a hollow ache in her stomach and she could feel that she was being rocked. It reminded her of traveling in the wagon with her mother, the bottles and trinkets jangling as the wheels rolled over the grass. She smiled at the memory and tried to push her eyelids open. She blinked slowly; above her, the sky was green. Green? Freya thought, laughter bubbling in her stomach. She blinked faster, trying to get her eyes to focus. White branches came into view, winding into each other and supporting the leaves. White branches?

Freya pushed herself up to a seated position, fighting the wave of nausea. She was on the cart, with Malik inert at her side, packed in with food and jars of water atop a pile of blankets. She looked over her shoulder to see Julian, guiding the donkey through wide gaps in the trees. She shook her head, wondering if this was a dream. She tried to think back to how she had gotten here, but the last thing she could recall was Julian buying tea for the three of them. The more conscious she became, the thicker the dread pooled in her stomach. If she was where she thought she was . . . 

The misshapen trees twisted together gruesomely, blocking out most of the sunlight. Their bark was white, unlike any tree she had ever seen before, and their trunks looked like shards of bone that had been staked in the earth. She began shaking her head, hoping she would wake from this nightmare.

"No, no, no, no," Freya moaned, growing louder with each repetition. Julian stopped the cart and turned.

"Freya, you're awake! There is some -- "

"What have you done?" Freya roared. Julian took a step back.

"You don't understand," he said, holding up his hands. Malik stirred. "My father hates me, and I deserve it, alright? I have to succeed at this, I have to get her back or I'll never -- "

"You selfish, lying, scheming bastard! You idiot!" Freya screamed, shakily finding her footing on the ground. She tried to march towards Julian and stumbled. "You killed us! You, killed, us!" She screeched, throwing food, dirt, rocks, anything within her reach, at Julian. Malik was sitting up now, absorbing his surroundings with his mouth agape. Freya collapsed to the ground, wailing and sobbing. "Do you know what you've done?" Malik climbed from the cart and crawled to Freya, pulling her into his lap and rocking her.

"It's just a forest," Julian whispered.

"No," Freya rasped, looking Julian in the eyes. "This is the forest cursed by the Fae witch Serilda, the most powerful witch of all time, dooming all humans who enter, to punish the humans for betraying and slaughtering her kind. Any human who enters will die a terrible death. We are doomed," she said turning her face into Malik's chest.

"Curses only have the power you give them," Julian said, reciting something his mother had read to him once. Freya laughed at his naivety. 

"No," Freya said, "Curses are as powerful as the witches who cast them. And Serilda was -- "

"The most powerful witch of all time. Yes, so you said," Julian interrupted. "Fine, you can leave."

"Have you been marking our trail?" Malik asked. "Do you know which direction we came from?"

"It doesn't matter. The forest won't let us leave anyway," Freya said.

"Marking our trail? No. But we came from . . . that direction?" Julian said, pointing behind them. Malik looked where Julian was pointing.

"Do you remember any landmarks?" Malik asked.

"Well, there was this tree . . . "

"A tree."

"It was a weird tree."

Malik looked around. "All of these trees are weird trees, Julian." He sighed and rubbed his face. "How long have we been asleep?"

"Quite a while . . . almost a day," Julian said.

"Gods above, how much milkweed did you give us?" Freya cried.

"I don't know, the apothecary gave me a small bottle, so I just split it between you two."

"We should eat and drink," Malik said, easing Freya off his lap. "Have you been rationing the food?"

"Rationing the . . . ?"

Malik groaned. "I'll divide it evenly. Who knows if anything in here is safe to eat. Freya, you can recognize poisonous plants, right?" She nodded. "Good. Hopefully we'll come across some animals."

"Listen to how silent it is," Freya said. "We won't find any animals."

"In a story I read once, marooned pirates ate tree bark to survive," Julian said. He took a knife from the cart and walked to the nearest tree. "We'll never run out of food." Julian reared his hand back.

"No!" Freya cried, but Julian was already swinging. His knife sunk into the tree, and a thick red liquid oozed out. He let go of the knife and backed away.

"Is that tree sap?" Malik asked, horrified. The liquid bubbled from the wound, a stark crimson against the ashen bark.

"It looks like blood," Julian yelped.

"Maybe it is. It is said that the forest is alive," Freya said. Julian whimpered.

"It's not blood," Malik said, sounding more certain than he looked. "It's tree sap. Now c'mon, let's --" A scream echoed through the forest, cutting him off. "What was that?"

"It sounded like a banshee," Freya said, looking up fearfully.

"No, it sounded like a girl screaming," Malik said, shaking his head.

"Maybe it's the princess," Julian said. "Maybe she's still alive!"

"Judging by that scream, she won't be for long," Freya said.

"Bloody hell, Frey," Malik said. "Enough already. It sounded like it came from that direction," Malik said, picking up the donkey's reins and nudging it forward.

"Excuse me -- you want to go towards the screaming?" Freya protested.

"Safety in numbers," Malik shrugged. "Whoever it is, maybe they can help us find a way out of here."

"Oh no," Freya said. "I am not going anywhere."

"So you're just going to wait here, for something to come along and kill you, or for starvation? That's your plan?" Malik asked. "C'mon, don't be ridiculous."

"I am not ridiculous."

"I didn't say you were ridiculous, I said you were being ridiculous. Now c'mon, we're wasting valuable daylight."

"I hate both of you," Freya said, but she stood and followed the cart, peering into the trees for any sign of danger. She thought she saw a figure watching from behind a tree, but when she looked again, it was gone.