to Arne. The tips of his fingers glowed slightly golden where they touched Arne’s face. “Good man, listen to these words. One day your BattleAxe will face great danger. Watch carefully those around him, especially those who pretend friendship and profess loyalty. Treachery will dog his footsteps. Watch your lord’s back, good man, and protect him from those who would do him harm.”
Arne moaned slightly in his sleep, and his hands clenched convulsively. Veremund paused a moment longer, then he released Arne and stood up. “It is all we can do. And now …” both turned to look at Axis, “now …”
Axis lay fast in a deeper and more peaceful sleep than he’d had for many months. He looked years younger than he did when awake.
Ogden whispered and looked at Veremund pleadingly. “May I be the one to …?”
Veremund bowed slightly to his companion. “Dear one, we can both do this. If you place your hand thus, and I place mine so, then we can both share this moment.”
He took Ogden’s hand and placed it over Axis’ face, then placed his own hand over Ogden’s, but so that his own fingertips touched Axis’ flesh between Ogden’s spread fingers.
For a long moment both were completely still, their eyes perhaps glowing slightly more golden, as they listened to Axis’ heart.
“Oh, yes, yes!” Veremund whispered, almost ecstatic. “Yes! I believe it is so! Oh! But wait, can you feel it?”
Ogden, his own face close to Veremund’s, nodded slightly. “Yes. The Destroyer already seeks him out. He invades his dreams and seeks to create doubts. He seeks to create hate in his heart. And,” Ogden paused briefly, “oh my goodness! This one has already touched the Sacred Grove!”
“All by himself,” Veremund said incredulously. “It is a wonder they let him live! We must watch over him. Ah, my sweet friend, fate has him firmly in hand. No wonder the Silent Woman Woods let him through unscathed. They had to.”
Both let go of Axis’ face and sat back on their heels at his side.
“And yet there is so much we do not know. My friend, if we can find his father, then we might be able to learn more about the Destroyer.”
Faraday paused nervously in front of the tree. Jack had assured her she would not actually have to enter the Woods, that it would only be necessary to touch the nearest tree. Still, now that she was this close she wondered if it had been unwise to allow Jack to talk her into this.
But Jack was grinning happily. Yr had followed them and now sat watching curiously from a few paces away. She blinked, her eyes bright blue even in moonlight, and Jack’s smile, if possible, became even broader than previously. He turned back to Faraday.
“Lady? Lovely lady, let me take your pretty hand.” Jacks hands were rough and work callused, but somehow comforting. Faraday relaxed slightly. Jack winked at her. His eyes were the most unusual shade of green. Faraday smiled. How could she not trust this simple-hearted man?
“Look, the trees are nervous too.”
Faraday looked startled. “Nervous? Why?”
Jack’s smile dimmed. “Axes, people bear axes. Trees do not like axes. Trees are afraid of people. They do not trust them. Lady, tell me, do you bear these trees ill-will in your heart?”
Faraday looked bemused. “No, no, Jack. I bear them no ill-will. But I feel a little silly about all this.”
“Come, lady. Place your hand against the tree trunk. Here.” He placed her hand on the rough bark, covering her small hand with his own roughened one.
“What am I supposed to do, Jack? How can I talk to the tree and ask it my question?”
“You must talk to it with your heart, lovely lady, not with words. Close your mouth and talk with your heart, with your feelings. Feel the tree, feel what it says to you.”
The man was crazy, not just a simpleton, Faraday thought. Just to please him, she closed both her mouth and her eyes for good measure, and tried to let a stream of goodwill flow towards the tree. Then, just as she was about to step back, her eyes flew open.
“Jack!” she gasped. Something unbelievable had just happened. Just when she had started to relax suddenly she felt another presence, it was the only way she could explain it. She could feel the tree, feel its emotions, in her own heart. The palm of her hand tingled.
Jack smiled, and dropped his hand. Now Faraday pressed almost her entire body along the tree trunk.
“Jack,” she said, her voice breathless with wonder, “it’s singing to me!”
Jack’s eyes filled with tears.
In the Keep, Ogden and Veremund were still crouched beside Axis. As the tree started to sing to Faraday their eyes widened and glowed so bright that the entire chamber was bathed in golden light.
“Dear one!” Ogden gasped, and Veremund groped for his hand. Both were filled with wonder.
“It’s singing to me,” Faraday whispered again. “I can feel it. Oh! It sings such a sad song. Oh Jack, it is so sad!”
Jack stepped close and embraced both tree and Faraday. Faraday began to weep and laugh at the same time, the tree’s song was so sad yet so incredibly beautiful. “They are all singing to me,” she whispered. “The entire forest is singing to me!”
Tears squeezed out of the corners of Yr’s eyes as she watched them. Tree Friend had been found at last. At last.
Jack stepped back a little. “Ask of it what you will, Faraday my lovely lady, and if it can the tree will show you what it can see.”
Faraday wondered fleetingly how Jack knew her name. She had never mentioned it. What did she want to ask the tree? Oh yes, Borneheld.
Tell me of my husband, she asked the tree, asking with her heart, not words.
For an instant the song faltered, then it started up again and an image so vivid filled Faraday’s mind that the night and the forest disappeared entirely from her sight.
But the vision was not beautiful, and Faraday’s face crumpled in despair. She was in the Chamber of the Moons in the palace in Carlon, but now the tables that had been there the night of Priam’s nameday banquet had disappeared. The Chamber was bare, save for several hundred people who stood in a circle around its edges. Their faces were blurry, indistinct, their presence unimportant except as witnesses to the tragedy about to unfold. She felt herself held by the strong arms of Jorge, Earl of Avonsdale; although she strained against his arms to be free, reaching with her arms and hands into the centre of the Chamber, Jorge was too strong for her. She was crying, terrified by what she saw.
The Tree Song altered, became harsher, and images began to flicker rapidly before her eyes.
She saw Borneheld, stepping down from the throne. Two men circling, swords drawn, faces twisted into snarling masks of rage fed by long-held hatreds. Borneheld and Axis. Both bleeding, both stumbling with weariness. Red. Everything was red. Even the silent watchers were clothed in a red veil. A bloodied sun hanging over a golden field. The heat. The heat! Faraday flinched as a gigantic fireball consumed her. Two men circling, trading blows, bleeding. A feather. Many of them, floating about her. The
