Shadows in the Trees: Book 1

Chapter 44

"My father loves me! He wouldn't try to kill me," Julian said. His head was spinning, and his face felt warm. 

"Enough!" Vess said. "Julian, has your father lost someone close to him?" 

Julian looked into her flat eyes, grief twisting its way to the forefront of his muddled mind. He thought of his mother, her long, curly hair, her warm laugh, her understanding smile. When she died, he lost the only person who he felt truly understood him. His father lost not only his love, but his queen. A king was not meant to rule alone, and Julian knew his father felt the empty space his mother left behind more than anyone. 

"My mother," he said softly. 

Vess nodded, seeming resigned. "Then she already has him in her clutches." 

"So let's return to the forest. We can find the last of the Fae there, and they'll be powerful allies against Roltandre. They'll be more motivated than anyone," Freya said. 

"Why are you so set on going back into that God-forsaken forest?" Julian snapped. Freya shrank back. 

"The forest is not a guarantee," Vess said. 

"And Thrael is?" Malik challenged. 

"Thrael will gladly take up arms against injustice," Jaida spat. Malik scoffed and rolled his eyes. Jaida looked enraged, but before she could say anything, Cerridwen spoke. 

"Stop this, all of the fighting. Please," she said. "Let me help. I can determine what we need to do." 

"What? How?" Julian asked. The other humans trained their eyes on Cerridwen. 

"I'm a Seer, remember?" she said with a giggle. 

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"I've never done anything like this in front of Humans before. Or anyone, really," Cerridwen said, flitting around nervously. It was sundown, the best time for divining, according to Cerridwen. Vess had cleared a small circle in the grass for her, and Cerridwen had drawn a circle with strange symbols in the dirt using chalk from her pack. She took out four small, wooden bowls, and had set them up equidistant from each other along the circle; two to the east and west, two to the north and south. 

"What, exactly, are you doing?" Jaida asked, eyeing the markings with her arms crossed. 

"They look like occult symbols," Julian said, fear tinging his voice. "I don't like this." 

"Don't worry," Malik said wryly, "I'm sure your One God will protect you." Julian glared at him and quietly began to pray. 

Cerridwen had removed more strange things from her back, two bottles, a bag, and some flint. Picking up the first bottle, she poured oil in one of the bowls. She filled the bowl across from it with water, poured from the second bottle. In the third bowl, she poured dirt from the small bag. The dirt was dark and moist, unlike the reddish, powdery dust that surrounded them. Finally, she struck the flint near the bowl filled with oil until it caught fire, casting strange shadows in the dusk. 

"Remember: no matter what happens, stay outside of the circle," Cerridwen said, laying down in the center of her handiwork. 

"Oh don't you worry, I will," Malik said under his breath. Julian silently agreed. 

"So, the question: where do we go next?" Cerridwen said. 

She closed her eyes and turned her palms upward, her bracelets jingling. The light from the small fire and the setting sun flickered across her thin limbs, giving her a ghoulish look. Her brown braids fanned out around her strange face, and her lips began to move. Julian couldn't tell if he was hearing her speak in their bizarre language or if it was merely the wind whispering through the grass.