Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

TWISTED VINES

I t wasn’t his eyes I saw this time. I stared at the bottom of his shoes. They were black leather boots, unremarkable in every way, save for some sort of crest imprinted on them. A goblet of twisted vines, a distinction I did not recognize, but more screams ripped my mind away. The cries belonged to my mother.

He held her by the shoulders, and judging by how her cries had turned to sobs and my interaction with him earlier, his grip was not gentle. “Where is she?” he yelled. “What have you done with her?”

“I don’t know,” she whimpered. “She didn’t come back, I swear. I don’t know where she went.”

The man seethed. “If you can’t tell me, Katalana,” he growled, “you know I will have no choice but to kill you, too. Thus is the will of the Rexi.” The synapses in my brain responded slowly to that comment, not understanding. My eyes darted around the room, but from my angle, I couldn’t see anything other than what the slight crack between floorboards revealed directly above me.

“Why?” she said, some strength coming back to her words. “We did everything you asked of us, everything! I raised her as my own daughter, I loved her as my kin. We all did. She hasn’t been discovered. How is death the reward?”

I froze. My world spun like I was a globe on an axis, carelessly slapped by a child. She spoke as if she knew the man, as if she owed deference to him. My mind reeled, and I almost didn’t notice the dripping from a few panels to my left.

Blood, a steady drip of it. I pressed my hand into my mouth hard and bit, stifling a scream. Was it Papa? Javis? Danson? The tears were coming freely now, and it took every bit of strength I had not to cry out. I swallowed the bile building at the back of my throat. I resolved to act. I needed to get Mama out, fast.

It was like the blue-eyed man heard my thoughts. One crack and she fell to his feet. Her auburn hair slipped through the floorboard cracks and ticked my forehead.

One of her eyes, already glazing over, met mine. It widened slightly. And then blinked three times.

Mom . I mouthed the word.

Another crack, and she was gone.

Everything stopped. No. No, this cannot be happening . I squeezed my eyes shut. I lived in a small, peaceful mining town. Every bit of what I just saw was nothing more than a horrible nightmare. I would open my eyes and wake with a sense of dread, in my own bed, ready to live another day of my boring, safe life. But when I opened my eyes, I only saw Mama’s lifeless face. Bile rose up my throat.

The tears came steadily then, rushing out and down my face and pooling on the ground around me. Was it my desire for freedom that brought on this hell? The foreigner Fayzien shouted commands I didn’t register. He stomped around the cottage, ripped doors off cabinets and overturned furniture. He even murmured some strange sounding words that clattered in my head, throbbing in a way I’d never experienced. But he didn’t move my mother’s body and look down through the floorboards. It was as if her final act of dying was to save me, whether she planned it or not.

I don’t know how long the blue-eyed man and his companions were there. It was clear he killed my entire family. I contemplated showing myself so he could kill me, too. But, I was terrified. Mostly that he would do something worse than only ending my life.

So I stayed frozen. I stayed frozen for so long, I felt I had always been still. Exhaustion came over me, exhaustion from the day, from running, from crawling, from holding in my tears, cries, and vomit. When I woke, quiet darkness commanded the house, and he’d gone. I tried to move, but I couldn’t, as if my limbs were wrapped tightly against my body. A strange round shape cocooned me, fibrous to the touch. Tree roots? I felt around myself. They had sprouted up from the ground. I was readied for burial, dressed in dirt and laid in a birch tomb. But why? And how? Those questions dissolved the moment I remembered. My family was dead. And I had done nothing to stop it.

If anyone came to check on us, I didn’t hear them. I was no longer thinking. I was wrapped in root, moss, and all the Earth’s matter. I didn’t attempt to move or understand how the Earth had come to wrap itself around me. I waited for what I believed—and maybe even hoped—would be my eventual death. I prayed I would wake up to see my family again, smiling at me with open arms.

Reality struck me awake with the sting of a slap.

My eyes flashed open to the sound of footsteps and hushed voices above my head. For a moment, I forgot where I was. When I looked up, Mama’s body was gone, and I wondered if I had imagined the whole horrible ordeal. But through the gaps in my make-shift pine bough cocoon, the blood stains on pinon told a different story.

All at once, my protective shield felt like a cage. Out, out, out. The voices in my home were new, different to the ones that had wreaked havoc however many hours before. I didn’t know if I could trust the new voices, but I wasn’t thinking straight. Only instinct controlled me as I released something guttural, something between a cry and a grunt. I raised my arms from my sides, expecting a struggle, but the sharp branches parted away from my hands, as if in deference to me.

The people in my house shuffled around looking for the source of the noise. The walls of my birch tomb were tight, too tight, and I couldn’t breathe. I slammed the heel of my palm above my head and into one of the floorboards. It broke easily and one more hit brought me to standing, half in the crawl space, half in the main room. The intruders’ eyes were wide and jaws loose, staring at a girl caked in several layers of mud, blood, and filth. I must have been quite the sight.

As my pupils adjusted to the daylight, I nearly laughed at the absurdity of my impulsive move, but the flicker of humor died as quickly as it surfaced. Fayzien did not stand among them, nor did the black cloaked men who’d been at Spring Day. I was careful to be quiet, placing my palms on the floor and hoisting myself up, one foot at a time. I counted six of them, three men, three women. They were not Argenti, and I saw no familiar faces. I exhaled, an instinctual calm I didn’t recognize washing over me.

A woman with silver hair and a lined face stepped forward. “Terra, I am Jana,” she said, placing two hands on her chest, miming her words. “Can you understand me, Terra?”

My head nodded on instinct, but my eyes narrowed. She knew my name. Just as Fayzien had known my name on Spring Day.

“I am here to bring you somewhere safe,” she said, hesitating a moment. “Do you recognize me?” she whispered.

I had no recollection of the woman’s face, but her presence seemed friendly. Barring, of course, that she maintained the company of what appeared to be henchmen or warriors of some kind. But if she was using some sort of trust-building tactic on me by acting like she knew me, it was not going to work.

She took another two steps forward, more urgently this time. “We don’t have much time. We must go now,” she said, holding a hand out for me. I extended my hand as if to place my palm in hers. Instead, I snatched her wrist and yanked the woman towards me, shifting my body to the side as I pushed her into the three people standing behind us.

It was all the distraction I needed. In a flash, I darted through the space she had stood and I was out of the house that no longer served as my home. My diversion worked. No one followed me as I raced back into the forest, darting from rock to root to lessen my tracks. To Gia’s. I had to get to Gia. I had to make sure she was safe.

But less than a minute after entering the trees, something firm crashed into me from behind, taking me down to the ground.

I braced for the fall, somehow directing myself toward a patch of soft grass. Lightly tanned, muscled arms framed my vision on each peripheral. The hard point of a knee pressed into the small of my back, pinning me down. I let out a wheeze of pain from the hard impact, and the pressure on my back softened. It was the space I needed. I shifted my weight just slightly, giving myself enough leverage to flip onto my back and knock the knee away.

The terror that had a firm grip on my mind loosened. Like the blue-eyed man, my attacker was unnaturally large, with features that seemed to be cut from glass. But he wasn’t as unsettling as Fayzien; his face was warm and had a soft golden hue. And his ears… they came to sharp points, unlike any ears I’d ever seen. But all of those details were nothing compared to his eyes. Set behind thick curling lashes, they were an unnatural green, like smoldering emeralds.

His brows furrowed, and I snapped back to the present moment. He heaved, like he was winded. I immediately tensed and tried to shove myself backwards.

His body stiffened in response to mine, and he grabbed my wrist, pulling me up. He stood a head taller and clearly outweighed me. His broad chest hadn’t stopped heaving, and I knew it was my best chance to run. I pulled myself close to him before he could react and sent my knee straight into his manhood.

Surprise flickered on his face as he keeled over, huffing in pain, but didn’t release me, the pressure of his fingers still hard on my wrist. “You know, this would be far easier if you didn’t play little warrior,” he grunted out.

The deep tenor of his voice sent a shock through me, but I didn’t let the feeling breed hesitation. I twisted my arm in his and maneuvered to hold on to his wrist. I yanked hard, putting one hand on his shoulder and using my other to bend his arm behind him. Then I jammed the heel of my foot into the back of his knee. That made him falter, dropping to the ground, and he released me. I blinked in shock at the efficacy of the move. But before I could turn to run, he swung a leg around, sweeping me off my feet. I fell face first into the dirt and a wash of heat ran through me, my cheeks reddening.

I rolled over my shoulder and found him standing once again, staring at me.

“Pretty clever move, especially for a country human. I wonder, where did you learn to fight someone three times your size?” he asked, his tone challenging.

A country human— what odd specificity . And his question rang through me, like I had the answer sealed in a box my mind couldn’t access. I shook my head slightly, refocusing on my adversary. I stood and raised curled fists to each side of my ears.

An amused smile spread over the man’s face. “ Bellatori wants to dance, eh? Well, I never refuse when a lady asks for a dance.” With that, he lunged. He jabbed, I swerved. He hooked, I ducked. I blocked only when absolutely necessary, conserving my strength. I was in a cold focus, landing a few blows to his unguarded ribs. How did I know how to fight? It felt effortless, like my muscles remembered something I did not.

The man watched me with a wild intensity as we “danced.” He seemed hesitant to strike me and unaffected by the punches I made to his gut. Eventually he landed a hit on my jaw, which left me staggering back, spitting blood. He made a move to seize me again, and I let him think my moment of vulnerability was his triumph, wobbling back towards a lone aspen as he grabbed me. I flipped my grip on his wrists once more and twisted them behind his back. He was far too strong for me to hold, but I used his weight as momentum. I let him fall into me, let his struggle collide with my strength as I pivoted and forced him forward, slamming him into a nearby tree.

He collided with it headfirst. I let him slump to the ground and took off running once more.

I ran full speed to Gia’s. Dusk set, and Gia’s was the only place I had to go. My association with Gia must have posed great danger to her now, with so many looking for me. I approached her house on light feet, triple checking for anyone on my tail. Crossing my fingers that she would be home, I tapped a pebble three times on her window, our private signal to meet at our favorite maple, just a few paces into the wood and out of sight.

It took ten long, dread-filled minutes before I finally heard Gia’s distinct footsteps. The sound of her approaching sent a wave of relief over me and I exhaled, not realizing I’d been holding my breath.

“Terra? Is that you?”

I stepped out from behind the large trunk, letting the moonlight cast shadows on my face. “Oh, the gods, look at you, where have you been!” Gia cried as she embraced me. “Mav told me what happened at Spring Day. I can’t understand it. The whole town looked for you everywhere, including that stranger—Fayzien.”

I grimaced at her words. The mere mention of Fayzien’s name gave me chills.

“Eventually, they all assumed he found you and you left with him. But I knew you wouldn’t have gone willingly without saying goodbye… and I went to your house, and everyone was gone, and blood stained everything and, oh, Terra, I was so worried,” she babbled.

But she stopped when she noticed the tears streaking my mud-soaked face. I couldn’t hold it in anymore. Now that I felt an ounce of safety, I let them come, in loud heaves. She held me as I sobbed and sobbed, eventually pulling me into her small lap on the ground. And she sobbed too, her wailing rivaling mine. For she realized what I had lost. And she realized what she had lost too, for her betrothed had been my brother Danson.

Long after our tears dried, the sun had set, and we clung to each other like we were all we had left. I guess that was true. Gia was all I had, at least. Eventually, I pushed myself up to sit.

I rested my head on my knees. “I’m so sorry Gia,” I mumbled. “They killed him because of me. I don’t know why, but they were looking for me and, and I just…” I trailed off.

Gia sat up and faced me. “Terra, it is not your fault,” she said softly, squeezing my hand. “Do you know what they did with his body?” she asked, a moment later, tears re-forming in her eyes.

I shook my head. “They were all gone when I came out. I was… I hid in the cellar when he killed Mama, and I couldn’t—” I choked, unable to finish my sentence.

“You don’t have to say anything now. Let’s get you cleaned up. You’ll sleep with me tonight,” she said, clearing her throat, ready to push forward as she always did. I felt my broken heart swell with appreciation for my resilient friend.

“Gia, I can’t. There are more of them, different ones. I lost them in the forest, but… I think they’ll keep coming. If I go to your house, I put your whole family in danger. I put you in danger. After everything, I can’t. I can’t,” I whispered.

“What do you mean, more?” She furrowed her brow. “Who are they? What did they look like? How did you lose them?”

“I have no idea. One acted like she knew me, but I’ve never seen any of them before… I fought one of them off and then ran straight here.”

“ Fought one of them off?” I nodded and Gia’s brows pinched together. “How on earth would you know how to do that?”

“I don’t know. It all happened so fast.” I shook my head.

“If you don’t stay here, where will you go, Terra? Are you planning to live in the forest for the rest of your life?” she asked, a sharpness creeping into her tone. “Do you really want to leave the only people you have left? And what about Mav?”

“There are questions I need answered,” I mumbled, a thrumming pain starting up in my head from hours of crying. “The man said a queen was looking for me and he mentioned something called… the Rexi. Maybe, maybe I could take one of your father’s maps, and then just a bit of food, and I could head to the Great Library in Lahar. I’ve heard it has books about all sorts of things. Maybe I could find—” I whipped my head to the forest. “Did you hear that?”

Gia’s eyes focused on the blackness, and she sniffed the air but said nothing.

“It sounded like someone stepping on a twig,” I added, my gaze following the direction in which Gia looked. And then a slice of pain seared my mind, turning everything black.