The Blood Forest (The Tree of Ages Series Book 3) Read online

  THE BLOOD FOREST

  BOOK THREE IN THE TREE OF AGES SERIES

  SARA C ROETHLE

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Note from the Author

  Glossary

  CHAPTER ONE

  F inn peered at the distant coast from the ship’s railing, though it was difficult to see through the fog, or was that smoke? The acrid scent in the air seemed too strong to be put off by cook fires alone. She brushed a lock of her long, dirty blonde hair away from her sunburned face, cringing at the feeling of grit beneath her fingers. Her entire body felt covered in a thin layer of salt from the sea.

  Iseult stood next to her, gripping the railing tight enough to make the wood creak. She turned to ask him if he thought a bath was in their near future, but kept her mouth shut at his expression.

  He was all tension, standing by her side while she leaned against the railing more casually. His black hair, flecked with gray at the temples, was partially held back in its customary clasp, leaving loose tendrils around his face for the sea air to play with. His gray-green eyes were serious, his mouth set in a grim line. He’d been almost relaxed during their time out at sea, but it seemed that had ended now.

  Finn turned her gaze back to the distant city. Once they reached land, they’d begin their long journey back to her beginning, where she once stood as a tree. Part of her hoped they’d find Àed there, back in his small hovel, tired from traveling, but she knew it was only wishful thinking. Her aged conjurer friend would not give up on finding them so easily.

  She glanced away from the distant city to the other passengers on the ship. At one time, the fast movement while out at sea would have made her lose her last meal, but she’d eventually gotten used to the ship’s gentle sway, and now almost found it comforting . . . almost. She could never quite put out of her mind the fact that Sirens dwelled in the sea, waiting to sing sailors to their watery graves.

  Finn watched as Iseult’s long lost brother, Maarav, and his men manned the sails, guiding the ship steadily toward Migris, where they would dock to meet Kai and Anna. Finn couldn’t help but wonder how everyone would get along. She held no warm feelings toward Maarav, and knew he’d likely anger some of the others before long. It was simply in his nature.

  She was more worried, however, about how Kai and Anna would behave. Neither of them were particularly good at making friends. Hopefully they’d at least taken good care of little Naoki, Finn’s adolescent dragon, though the small creature did present another problem. The people of Migris were terrified of the Faie, and would not take kindly to a dragon in the city. Finn comforted herself with the idea that Kai would think of a way to smuggle Naoki out unseen. He was good at that sort of thing.

  Footsteps across the deck preceded Ealasaid’s appearance at Finn’s other side. Her curly blonde hair had seemed to grow in size the longer they were out to sea, foaming into a snarled mass around her delicate freckled face and pale gray eyes. She wore the same burgundy dress with black accents Finn had first seen her in, causing her to assume it was the girl’s only one.

  Not that Finn could say much different. She still wore the tight breeches, loose white blouse, and corset she’d been given aboard Anna’s ship. Her deep green cloak, beginning to fray heavily at the edges, was secured around her shoulders, shifting gently in the breeze. The people of Migris would likely stare as much at her state of attire as they would a baby dragon, but she was loath to change back into a dress, especially if they’d be riding. Sitting on the saddle wasn’t the issue. Her previous skirts had consisted of enough fabric to still cover her ankles, but lifting her leg over the horse always caused a blush. Of course, they’d have to find horses to purchase first, which likely wouldn’t prove easy.

  Ealasaid stepped forward and leaned her arms against the railing beside Finn. “I’ve never actually been to Migris. I’ve never been to any of the great cities, for that matter.”

  Finn tilted her head, confused, squinting her eyes against a harsh blast of sea air. “I thought you traveled with Iseult to find me.”

  Iseult had told her everything that happened while they were apart, including how they’d come to travel with Ealasaid. She knew he’d narrowly missed her in Migris as she sailed away, locked in a cabin on Anna’s ship, and had just assumed Ealasaid and Àed were with him.

  Ealasaid nodded. “We reached the gates together, but no one was allowed inside the city. Iseult found his own way in, while Àed and I waited with the refugees.”

  Finn’s heart gave another nervous patter at the thought of Àed. Though it was doubtful he’d be waiting for them at the end of their journey in Greenswallow, he might very well be waiting in Migris. He’d parted ways with Iseult somewhere north of the large city, supposedly to search for her on his own. Her only hope was that he had not traveled all the way to the Archtree, only to find it burned to a stump with her nowhere to be found.

  “Ah, yes,” Finn replied, stuffing her nerves back down, “my travel companion at the time had been able to gain us special entrance to the city. I’d almost forgotten.”

  The thought of Bedelia brought her nerves right back up. Was she even still alive? Maarav had claimed he’d delivered the potion that would cure Bedelia’s illness, brought on by the bite of a Faie wolf, but Finn did not fully trust a single thing he said. He’d stood idly by while Anna kidnapped her, after all. She took a deep breath to settle her anxiety, then nearly gagged on a sudden whiff of smoke in the air, not the pleasant smell of wood burning, or even food, but a sickly sweet stench that made her gut clench.

  “Something is wrong,” Iseult muttered, drawing her attention.

  She followed his gaze to the distant port. It was smoke surrounding the city, not fog, though she saw no flames over the city walls. They were still too far out to see anything else.

  “Is the city on fire?” Ealasaid questioned.

  Iseult nodded. “So it would seem.” He smoothed his hands over his clothing, all in shades of his customary black, as if preparing himself for a confrontation.

  Finn squinted her eyes in the direction of the city, but could not tell if men still guarded the walls or the dock. She turned her gaze out toward the open ocean, then pointed, “There’s Anna’s ship. It seems they will arrive shortly after us.”

  She turned to see Iseult nod. “Yes, if we decide to dock at all. The smoke might mean Migris has been attacked. It may now be inhabited by enemy forces.” He frowned at the thought.

  Finn knew he was likely thinking of Conall. He’d regaled her of his visit back to the place of his birth, now just a ruined city. It had been taken over and fortified by Conall, a Reiver commanding magic-using refugees. Reivers were the wild people of the borders, bandits by most accounts. Finn had encountered such a group while she was on Anna’s ship. The altercation resulted in disturbing repercussions. She could still clearly picture the man’s skin melting from his bones at her touch.

  She shook away the memory, focusing on the current situation. She had no desire to encounter Reivers ever again. If they inhabited the city, they would simply have to dock elsewhere.

  Maarav came to stand at Iseult’s other side, leaving his men, Tavish and Rae, to tend the sails. He peered out ac
ross the water. “Can’t say I like the look of that. I’ll not be pleased if my inn is no longer standing.”

  Finn chewed her lip in consternation. She’d almost forgotten about Maarav’s inn, The Melted Sea, named after the ocean they now sailed.

  “I don’t think your inn is necessarily a priority right now,” Ealasaid sniped back.

  Maarav only chuckled. The pair often seemed to be at each other’s throats, but spent more time together than apart. Finn suspected Ealasaid enjoyed Maarav’s company more than she let on, though she also seemed constantly irked by the man.

  “I’d say it was burned at least a full day ago, judging by the lack of visible flames,” Iseult commented. “The remnants of the city will likely smolder for a while longer.”

  Ealasaid let out a shaky exhale, muted by the sound of lapping ocean waves, more rough now that they were closer to shore. “The whole city?” she asked. “Are you saying the entire city was burned?”

  Iseult nodded, then gestured toward the sight. “Look at the smoke. That’s not the smoke of a single building, or even several.”

  Unease blossomed in Finn’s gut. Migris was only the first stop of many on their journey, but they would still need to resupply. Weeks out to sea had depleted their provisions, and they only had two horses, belonging to Iseult and Maarav. Not to mention that whoever had burned the city might still be in the area.

  “Should we still dock?” Finn questioned, searching the sea again for Anna’s ship to find it was making steady progress toward the shore. It seemed they planned to dock despite the smoke.

  “Aye,” Iseult replied. “The nearest ports to Migris are Sormyr, far south, and,” he hesitated, “another far north.” He glanced at Maarav.

  Finn supposed he was alluding to the hidden city Iseult had secretly told her about. All on the ship had departed from there, save Finn, who’d been on a ship with Kai and Anna at the time. She couldn’t help but be a little jealous. A city completely concealed within a rocky wall, forming a secret cove, sounded like quite a sight, and it irked her that she wasn’t supposed to know about it.

  Maarav and Iseult turned away to aid the men with the sails, prepared to guide the ship toward the docks, leaving Finn and Ealasaid alone.

  “Do you think it was the Faie that burned the city, or was it the Reivers?” Ealasaid questioned distantly, still leaning against the ship’s railing. She turned her gaze to Finn. “Or perhaps even An Fiach?”

  Finn took a shaky breath and pushed her waist-length hair behind her ear, unsure which option was worse, though it wasn’t necessarily any of the three. The Cavari, her tribe, could have been to blame, or perhaps even the Ceárdaman, the Travelers, relinquishing their role as watchers to twist the strings of fate.

  “Let’s just hope whoever it was did not decide to linger,” she replied. “And let’s hope there are supplies left to find, lest we starve before anyone has the chance to kill us.”

  Ealasaid’s face scrunched up like she might be sick. Finn could not blame her, she was tempted to lose her breakfast herself.

  “BLADDERED, cursed dragon,” Kai growled, giving a final tug to the blanket.

  Naoki perched on the bed, digging her talons into the straw of the mattress. She clasped the other end of the blanket in her beak, refusing to let go, while fluffing up her sparse white feathers to make herself appear larger than she was. He tugged again, making her wings flap chaotically as she tried to maintain her balance, sending loose papers fluttering around the room from the bedside table.

  Kai let go of the blanket with a huff. “We can’t just go walking about with a dragon out in the open,” he explained tiredly. “If you’d just wear the blanket, perhaps we could pretend you’re something . . . else.”

  Dropping her end of the blanket, Naoki craned her long neck to the side, blinking spherical lilac eyes at him. She’d been a handful since they’d parted ways with Finn, Naoki’s mother, as far as the little dragon was concerned. He’d been forced to keep her in Finn’s vacated cabin, lest Naoki attempt to fly away in search of her.

  He sighed, then took a seat on the bed beside the dragon. Finn would never forgive him if he managed to lose her friend, not to mention Anna would be furious with losing her collateral.

  Naoki made a chittering sound in her throat, then retrieved the blanket and dropped one end in Kai’s lap.

  He snorted. “It’s all just a game to you, isn’t it?”

  She chittered again.

  “Are ye almost done with that dragon!” Sativola called down the stairs leading to the cabins. “We’re about to dock, and it looks like the city has been burned.”

  Burned? Well that didn’t sound good. Pushing the blanket aside, he stood, then hurried out of the cabin, shutting the door before Naoki could bound after him. He cringed as her weight hit the closed door, then proceeded to jog down the hallway. He reached the stairs and raced up them two at a time to find Sativola waiting on deck, his massive form partially blocking out the sun.

  As soon as Kai was at his side, Sativola pointed a sausage-like finger at the nearby city of Migris. Sure enough, it was giving off large amounts of smoke, and no men could be seen around the gates.

  “No signs of life?” Kai questioned, not spotting any, but wanting to verify that whoever had burned the city was not around.

  Sativola shook his head, tossing his golden curls to and fro. “None that we’ve seen yet. Looks like the fire has died down, leaving only the smoldering remains.”

  Kai snorted. Smoldering remains. An apt description for his life at the present, or so he felt. He had no idea where he stood with Finn, and now she was back with Iseult on their little quest. Not to mention Anna’s troubles with seeing into the gray, the in between places. Her nightmares had only grown worse, sometimes crossing into waking so that she jumped at shadows at the oddest times. Now they somehow had to make it all the way back to Garenoch, and a meadow somewhere beyond that, where Finn used to stand as a tree. It would have all been hard to believe if he hadn’t seen too many odd things with his own eyes, including the Faie of the Blood Forest.

  “Well at least we won’t need to hide the dragon when we dock,” Sativola sighed, drawing Kai out of his thoughts.

  Kai nodded. There was that, at least. Perhaps he could just keep Naoki in her cabin, and leave it to Finn to draw her out without a fight.

  Thinking of Finn, he scanned the sea for the ship she was on, finding it not far off from his own. He squinted his eyes, attempting to make out the figures on the deck, but they were too far away to see clearly.

  Sativola jumped as the door to Anna’s nearby cabin burst open, slamming against the exterior wall with a loud bang. Anna exited the cabin and approached, looking dangerous in her tightly fitted black attire: breeches, tunic, and corseted vest. Twin daggers, her constant companions of late, swayed at each of her hips. Her straight, black hair, pulled into a tight braid, accentuated her sharp, hawklike features and dark eyes.

  “It seems someone has laid siege to Migris,” Kai explained as she reached them.

  She nodded, her eyes taking on a distant look. “It was the Faie, or something like them.”

  Kai frowned, waiting for further information.

  Instead of answering, Anna glared at Sativola until he raised his hands in surrender and walked away. Turning back to Kai, she explained, “I saw it in a dream last night. I don’t know who led them, or why, but many powerful creatures gathered together to conquer the city.” She frowned. “They wanted to send a message,” she added distantly.

  Kai suppressed a shiver. He’d stood witness as the Faie attacked the Ceàrdaman, slaughtering them to break the barrier trapping them within the Blood Forest. He couldn’t imagine what the people of Migris must have felt when the Faie descended upon them. Even if some managed to flee, they would not likely last long in the wilds. The roads were already crowded with refugees searching for a safe place to dwell. At least, that was how it had been when they’d departed on their search for the Archtre
e, over two weeks prior.

  “Are the Faie still within the city?” he questioned, hoping Anna had gained more useful information from her dream.

  She shook her head. “I do not know, and I didn’t say they were Faie for sure, just something like them. Something . . . magical. Perhaps some remain, but I doubt it. They accomplished what they set out to do.”

  “And that was to send a message?” Kai asked, feeling uneasy as they neared the docks. “What kind of message, and to whom?” This close to the city, he was quite sure there were no signs of life, but he’d prefer to avoid any stragglers who might remain.

  “If I knew, I would have said,” Anna snapped. “I don’t know why I dreamed of it at all. The only thing I can say for sure is that our troubles will only increase from here.”

  She’d grown flustered as she spoke, darting her eyes around the ship. Was she seeing things again? Kai tried to follow her gaze, knowing he couldn’t see what she saw, but unable to keep himself from trying.

  Giving up, he left Anna’s side to help the other men with the sails. Just a moment before, he’d been thinking his life couldn’t get any worse, but if hoards of Faie, or something perhaps even worse, were sacking the great cities, all men would have many more troubles to come.

  ISEULT WATCHED as Finn carefully stepped down the slatted plank connecting the ship to the dock. The smell of smoke was stronger this close to the city, coating the chill air hitting his lungs. His gaze lingered as Finn paused to wrap her ratty green cloak more tightly around her, catching her snarled hair in the fabric around her shoulders. She stared down the length of the dock, her feet not moving.