9. Kami
9
Kami
I don't know how much time has passed while I remain a tree.
Oz speaks to me often, sometimes stroking my soft leaves since I leave a thin branch through the bars to feed him my apples.
My odd magic doesn't seem to be affecting him in a bad way, thank Death. Oz hasn't turned more bloodthirsty or tried to destroy anything.
His voice sometimes makes sense. At other times, it's just a soft music that reminds me I'm still a dryad under all the leaves and bark.
I'm so tired, but I can't die yet. I don't know why.
I do know I've had some lovely dreams of Ahza.
He lingers inside me, singing, laughing, and reminding me of our past, where we had little more than each other.
I don't miss him like I did, because he's here with me. In me. Feeding me his love.
While Oz feeds me words, a connection to life.
And then one day I change back to that girl who's all alone .
" Holy shit. You weren't in the tree. You were the tree!" Oz stares at me through the bars, and it takes me a moment to see with fae eyes again.
He looks larger than he did before, though I only saw him briefly. Despite being in a cell, he appears pretty healthy. He wears only a pair of dark trousers, not even any shoes over those huge feet.
His gray-green skin is unmarred except for a large scar across his heart. His dark hair is longer, and a smattering of a beard darkens his chin.
Odd, because orcs don't grow facial hair.
But he doesn't have prominent lower fangs either, so he's obviously not a full orc.
His eyes are clear and relieved. "You okay?"
I shrug and fall on my ass. "Ow. I…no."
"You were a tree for two months. We have company now." He nods to the cells across from us. In the darkness, I can't see anyone there. But the dim faefire outside my cell shines a light across Oz.
"Who are they?" I ask, my voice rusty.
"I don't know. They're under some kind of spell though. That or they're dead." He shrugs. "None of them have moved since they were brought in. Two guys at first, but they added a third a few days ago. And that's in addition to the other twenty-plus prisoners in the communal cell on the other side of the wall."
"How can you tell the time?"
"It's an orc thing." He rubs a hand over his hair. "I'm glad you're back. If you hadn't snapped out of it soon, Folas and Rilitar were talking about some spells to bring you back. Fire, black magic, dark stuff."
I'm surprised to feel glad to be back too. "Why do they keep us alive?" If I was Rilitar and had an enemy, I'd either torture them or kill them. But no one has bothered me for a while, apparently.
"The Radiant Trials are here." Oz scowls. "The districts pit us against each other as sacrifices to their war god. The only way to win is to survive. It's brutal."
"So that's the tournament talk I was hearing." I'm listening to him while a large part of me is still waking up. I feel fuzzy, though I've kept myself alive by feeding from the earth. And by feeding Oz.
Oddly, I have done this before, feeding Ahza when my ability to ingest spirit energy was at its lowest. I got some kind of feedback from the sharing.
Before. When he was alive.
I swallow the lump in my throat. "How many people are in this tournament? Where do they have it?"
Oz is now exercising. He's doing pushups as he starts to speak and doesn't sound winded.
I really don't want to come up against him in any kind of competition.
"Each district is responsible to provide a quarter of the candidates. So between the three districts and the monarch's picks, several hundred candidates compete. The numbers vary each year. Most are prisoners. Some are slaves or servants, but generally only the toughest are entered."
"I'm not tough."
"They start by getting the stronger candidates to thin the herd. War prisoners, people who piss Rilitar off, and those others the district bosses want gone."
None of this sounds promising.
"Once the strongest are left standing, the real trials begin." Oz finishes and sits up. "It's survival of the fittest, and each death is said to please Beyrthnel. Me? I just want to survive so I can come back and kill the shit stain. "
"Get it in line," I say with fervor. Maybe that rest did me a favor, because I'm feeling more than a little alive right now. I'm angry as fuck. "When does the competition start?"
"Soon, I think. The Radiant Trials begin on the anniversary of Beyrthnel's ascension to the Great Hall." He stops pushing up and stands, staring over at me. "You might want to do something about the tree being missing. I guess you could explain it away, but Rilitar's no fool. If he sees the tree gone and you here…"
"He'll know I'm a monster."
"Yeah. I mean, who cares, right? Most of us in here are. But they aren't so nice to our kind. Especially female monsters, if you get my meaning."
I do.
He makes sense.
I'm tired, but I need to do something so it looks like I wasn't in fact a tree. If only I had some seeds.
"Will this help?" Oz reaches his arm through the bars and hands me an apple core. "I ate the others, but I was planning to eat this one later."
I gladly take the core and shove it in the large hole where my trunk used to be. Then I focus and let my energy stir the small seeds into rootlets before merging them into one being.
It feels good though draining, creating new life and giving it purpose.
To protect me and all who would enter this cell from the elves.
To crush evil in this dark place that invites such corruption.
The tree is half of what it was when it was me, but it's enough.
I can't do any more and slump against the back wall, blinking with hazy vision .
"Incoming," Oz murmurs and backs away to a corner where he's in the shadows.
Noise comes from footsteps striking stone.
Rilitar and Folas soon come into view.
For killing Ahza and stripping away his hope, Rilitar will die a horrible death. I'll see to it personally.
Folas was at least nice to my brother, if only superficially. I'll leave his death to someone else. Maybe Oz, since he seems annoyed with our jailers in general.
But the head elf is mine.
He sees me and lights up, actually smiling. "Ah, Kami. You're back with us." Rilitar glances from me to the tree, his expression thoughtful.
"I'm going to kill you. Slowly." I sound like I swallowed dirt, but my intention is plain.
He smile widens. "That's the spirit. It should stand you well in the trials. I'm betting on you, Kami. And you too, Oz." He gives me an assessing look. "An apple tree. You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"
He stares from Oz to me and nods, turns to Folas, and says something I can't hear.
Folas looks us over, making no effort to hide his disdain. "You two will join the others at the holding area tomorrow, then the arena following that. Do us proud."
"Fuck you, Folas," Oz growls.
Folas sighs. "If only you'd offered sooner, we could have avoided all this."
Oz insults him in high fae, a language I never bothered to learn but clearly recognize.
Folas smirks and says something back, then the fae leave.
I can't shake the feeling Rilitar knows I'm more than a simple dryad .
Did my making an apple tree give me away? Necromancers supposedly have a thing for apples, though I have no idea why.
Or has he seen my fucked-up tree outside the castle walls and realized I'm behind it turning bloodthirsty?
Not that it matters.
Either way, I'm going to get my strength back and lie, cheat, and steal my way out of the Radiant Trials.
Then I'll find a way to kill the elf and everyone he ever cared about.
Vengeance, in the name of Ahza.
I wipe away a stray tear, knowing how much Ahza would love that badass pledge.