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

  WRAPPING her tattered green cloak around herself, Finn hurried across the empty common room. She had an extra cloak since Naoki had run off, but she refused to wear it, both because she was determined her little friend would find her once more, and because the old cloak reminded her of Àed. It had once belonged to his daughter, and he had gifted it to her when they first set out on their journey.

  She pushed one side of the heavy double doors open and walked out into the night, quickly spotting Iseult leaning against the front of the building, his tall frame seemingly at ease. Though his breath fogged the air, he did not have his cloak tightly wrapped around himself like she did, leaving the sword pommel at his hip to glint in the moonlight.

  He turned his expressionless gaze to her as she approached. “How is he?”

  “I’m not sure,” she muttered. She leaned against the building beside him, wincing at the knot in her stomach. “Anna seems to think if he makes it through morning he’ll survive, but she seems unsure.”

  He nodded, but did not comment further.

  “Bedelia said you wanted to speak with me?” she pressed, wishing they could have their conversation by a warm fire instead of outside near the stabled horses.

  He nodded again, but seemed hesitant to speak. She turned her gaze up toward the sky, hoping a lack of eye contact might make him feel more comfortable with whatever he needed to say.

  Unfortunately, the silence drew on for several long moments.

  As she watched, sparse clouds drifted in to cover the moon. There was a crispness to the air that hinted at more snow, though she’d been told repeatedly it was the wrong time of year for it. Perhaps the strange weather was following them, just like the assassins and An Fiach. One of the horses whinnied behind them, drawing Finn back to the present.

  “Do you think we made the correct decision?” Iseult asked finally.

  “To come here?” she asked, confused. Iseult wasn’t normally one to ask for opinions.

  “To leave the others,” he clarified.

  She turned her head to search his face. Was he regretting leaving his brother behind? He hadn’t seemed overly concerned with Maarav’s welfare when they left him, but she knew better than most that Iseult had many hidden depths.

  Finding no further clues in his expression, she turned her gaze back to the moon. “I’m not sure, really. I do not believe he was responsible for the ambush, but I cannot necessarily say the same for Rae and Tavish. They did not fight against us, but did not help us like Maarav. Still, I have not trusted Maarav from the start.”

  Iseult nodded. “His motives have remained unclear to me. I do not think it happenstance that he found me in Migris, nor do I think Bedelia just happened to be traveling the Sand Road at the same time as our party.”

  “Bedelia?” she questioned, startled by the abrupt subject change.

  He nodded. “I would like you to tell me more about the time you spent with her. How you met, and how you parted.”

  “I told you already,” she replied, feeling slightly defensive about the subject. “After I was stolen away by the Cavari’s Faie creatures, I escaped and ended up lost in the woods. I saw a campfire in the distance and hurried toward it to find Bedelia. She fed me and accompanied me to Migris.”

  “And you were far from the Sand Road when you met her?” he pressed.

  “Well yes,” Finn began.

  “And she did not tell you what she was doing by herself, so far from the road?”

  “Well no,” she replied, starting to see his point.

  He sighed. “I caught her wandering around outside the castle ruins while everyone slept,” he admitted. “I believe she was looking for me. Once I had safely escorted her back, I sensed guilt in her expression.”

  Finn felt like a fist was slowly clenching around her heart. “What are you saying?”

  His expression softened as he looked at her. “My apologies, I did not mean to upset you, and perhaps I have misjudged her. I would simply like you to be careful what you say to her.”

  “And you would like me to consider leaving her behind, like we did to Maarav and Ealasaid?” she accused. “You would like me to leave yet another friend behind?”

  He opened his mouth to say more, but the inn door opened to their right. Bedelia peeked her head out. “Kai is awake,” she explained.

  Finn’s heart thundered in her ears. She turned back to Iseult.

  He nodded for her to go. “Be careful,” he advised.

  She nodded, then followed Bedelia inside. There was much to discuss with Iseult, but her priority at that moment was Kai. She’d already lost Àed and Naoki. Though she hadn’t been as close to Ealasaid, her loss stung as well. Now she might possibly lose Kai.

  Perhaps she should be suspicious of Bedelia, but she could not bring herself to question her friendship. She’d lost enough friends already. She wasn’t about to chase away the few that remained.

  ANNA BIT her lip hard enough to make it bleed. She would not cry. Kai had awoken, and it was clear by his unfocused, sad eyes that he believed he was going to die. She believed it too. His face was horribly pale, coated in a sickly sweat, his breathing ragged and weak. She thought it likely his internal organs had been damaged, and were now beginning to fail him. She could think of no other explanation.

  Even more disturbing than the readily visible signs, was the fading of the color surrounding him. Since developing her curse of seeing the in between, she had started seeing soft colors surrounding people. Kai’s was usually a calm, deep forest green. Now it seemed that it was fading to a bleak gray.

  The door creaked open across the room and Finn poked her head in. Anna gestured for her to come inside. Though he was just feverishly mumbling to himself now, Kai had asked for her.

  Shutting the door gently behind her, Finn hurried across the room, then sat on the bed beside Kai. She listened to his mutterings for a moment, then looked to Anna, confused.

  “He was coherent for a short time,” she explained. “He asked to see you.”

  Finn furrowed her brow, then turned her gaze back to Kai.

  “I don’t think he’s going to make it,” Anna softly explained, the truth behind her words stabbing her like a spear through her heart.

  Finn took Kai’s hand in hers and stared down at him intently. “I refuse to accept that.”

  Anna’s heart gave a nervous skip. “I thought you said you do not possess the power to heal,” she said evenly, determined to keep her turbulent emotions out of her voice. Kai couldn’t die. He was her only friend, the only person on this terrible earth who cared about her.

  “I don’t,” Finn said softly, still staring down at Kai, “but there has to be something,” she took a shaky breath, “something we can do.”

  Anna felt like her heart was going to stop beating at any moment, right along with Kai’s. Damn Finn for being such a destructive creature. She had so much magic in her, but she couldn’t use any of it to help someone she cared about.

  Hot rage washed over her. She was a willing recipient of the scalding emotion, much more comforting than sadness and defeat. She stared at Finn and willed her to do something, anything, to help Kai.

  The lighting in the room suddenly shifted. Part of Anna’s mind registered that the candles illuminating the room had begun to flicker, as if a breeze was circulating, yet the curtains over the window did not flutter.

  “Are you doing that?” she asked, suddenly nervous. The incident with the assassins was the first time she’d seen Finn’s magic, though Kai had explained it to her previously. She didn’t think roots shooting up through the floor of the inn would help Kai any.

  Finn turned wide eyes to her, though she maintained her grip on Kai’s limp hand. “I’m not doing anything,” she breathed.

  The candles flickered again, and the fire began to sputter. Suddenly the room went dark. No, not just the room, Anna realized. She seemed unable to move, and at some point her eyes had closed. Part of her sensed she was still sitting in
her chair, but her body felt like it was being pulled under water. She was sinking into an endless sea of darkness.

  Suddenly the feeling of drowning stopped. She took a gasping breath, then stumbled to her feet. She nearly fell to her knees, but managed to regain her balance as her vision slowly returned. She was looking at a solid stone wall.

  Stone? The walls of the inn had been made of wood. Where was she?

  “Where did you come from?” a woman’s voice asked, echoing from somewhere down the wide, winding corridor in which Anna stood.

  “I’m not sure,” Finn’s voice answered, muffled the same as the first woman’s voice. She sounded confused, and maybe a little groggy.

  Anna turned and hurried toward the sound of the voices, her boots echoing along the stone floor and off the stone walls encasing her in a narrow hallway. Torches lit the way periodically, but there were long gaps of darkness in between.

  She let out a huge sigh of relief as Finn came into view. She was sitting on the floor, and Kai was with her. She still clutched his hand as he lay unconscious, sprawled out just like he’d been in the bed. A woman was standing at their backs.

  Finn blinked up at Anna’s approach, but she seemed unable to focus, so Anna turned her attention to the extra woman, suddenly recognizing her long red hair and pinkish, freckled skin.

  “Branwen?” she questioned, utterly shocked to see the woman alive.

  Branwen didn’t seem at all surprised. “It’s good to see you again,” she said, her gaze on Anna. Her tawny hair hung limp and matted around her gaunt face, and she wore a white, shapeless gown, but she otherwise seemed just like the naive girl Anna and Kai had tricked into funding their travels.

  Branwen turned her gaze away from Anna and down to Finn, who finally seemed to be regaining her senses. “I never expected to see you here,” she said happily.

  Finn stared over her shoulder at Branwen in awe, but she seemed reluctant to stand and let go of Kai’s hand. “Where are we?” she asked instead.

  Anna observed the wide, stony corridor around them, and suddenly it dawned on her. They were in the gray place. She’d traveled these halls when the Ceàrdaman had put her in a trance to find the Archtree. Yet, she’d only walked these corridors in her mind. This time, she felt like she was fully there, not walking through a hazy dream.

  “We’re in the in between,” Anna explained. “The gray.”

  Branwen pursed her lips in thought. “Yes, I suppose that’s a fitting name for it.” She turned her body to fully face Anna, revealing a large crimson stain on the side of her dress, near her abdomen.

  “You’re injured!” Finn exclaimed, seeing the stain at the same time as Anna.

  Branwen shrugged. “I’ve been this way for quite some time now.”

  Finn finally released Kai’s hand and stood, then went to Branwen. “I don’t understand,” she gasped, holding out her hands as if she could somehow help her.

  Anna moved to take Finn’s place beside Kai. His chest still rose and fell with breath, but his hand was icy cold. “This is the place I see in my dreams,” Anna explained, her gaze remaining on Kai. “I don’t know how to explain it, other than to call it the in between. It’s the place between reality and fantasy, the living and the dead. How we arrived here is anyone’s guess.”

  “You brought us,” Finn accused. “The Travelers told me you’re the Gray Lady of Clan Liath. This place is in your blood.”

  Anna craned her neck to roll her eyes at Finn. “Don’t be absurd. I simply see things that should not be seen. I don’t have true magic.”

  Kai started muttering again in his sleep, and Finn hurried to his other side, taking his free hand as she knelt. “How are we supposed to help him now? We can’t even give him water if he needs it!”

  Anna bit back her tears. Had she really somehow transported them all to this place? It didn’t seem possible. It had to be Finn. It was Finn’s fault Kai would lose his life in this place.

  Kai’s breathing became ragged and all of Anna’s thoughts rushed away. Her best friend was about to die. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. The air she sucked into her lungs was dense and moist . . . wait, was that fog? Her eyes searched the expansive corridor, now slowly filling up with moist, white, bog-like mist

  Finn and Branwen seemed to notice the mist too as it thickened. Anna felt compelled to keep silent, and it seemed her conscious companions did as well. Something about this mist was oddly familiar, and all she could think was, danger.

  Movement caught her eye further down the corridor, a cloaked shape. It moved toward them, gliding smoothly as if its feet didn’t touch the ground, but as it neared, Anna could see that it actually walked, just gracefully. Feminine hips outlined beneath the thin black fabric of the cloak swayed with every step.

  Anna watched awestruck, unable to move, until the cloaked figure reached them. The figure removed its hood, revealing a face startlingly similar to Finn’s, except her hair was dark, her eyes blue, and her features perhaps a touch more angular. Anna also had a sense of great age. She knew Finn was technically centuries old, but this woman before them somehow felt ancient.

  “Did you bring us here?” Finn squeaked, her words seeming to pull Anna out of her trance.

  She moved her gaze to Finn, who seemed frightened, but at the same time, angry.

  The woman, Finn’s mother Anna assumed, chuckled. “The Gray Lady brought you here. I saw an opportunity to speak with you, and I took it.”

  Finn’s face crumbled into confused lines, then she slowly seemed to grasp what the woman was saying. “I’ve been to the in between before, haven’t I? That’s how we were able to speak on the island.”

  Finn’s mother nodded. “The Archtree’s presence made the barriers between the worlds thin. It allowed me to make contact without physically being in the same place as you.”

  “I think I understand,” replied Finn, though Anna couldn’t say she agreed. Finn’s mother claimed Anna had brought them all to this place. It couldn’t be possible, could it?

  As if reading her thoughts, Finn’s mother turned her cool gaze to Anna. “The seasons are changing,” she explained. “The barriers grow thin all across the land. The old bloods are returning. The Cavari, the Faie, and the elder clans, one of which is Clan Liath. Their blood runs strong through your veins. Magic is returning to the earth. It is returning to you.”

  “It cannot return if I never had it to begin with,” she snapped, suddenly defensive.

  Finn’s mother chuckled. “You’ll see in time. You are not the only one reconnecting with the power that should have been your birthright.”

  Birthright? Anna wanted to ask her more, but Kai’s hand spasmed around hers, drawing her attention away.

  “His blood has been poisoned,” Finn’s mother explained. “He will die.”

  “No,” Finn argued, shaking her head over and over. “He cannot, I will not allow it. I will not lose another friend.”

  “You wish to save him?” her mother asked.

  “She does!” Anna interrupted. “Can you help us?”

  Finn’s mother smirked, then turned her gaze back to Finn. “You truly have forgotten much, much I am loath to remind you of, but I will tell you this. Immortal blood runs through your veins. Share it with him, and he will be changed. He will not live forever, but he will be stronger than he once was, able to fight the poison within him.”

  “How do I do it?” Finn asked frantically, staring down at Kai’s sickly face.

  Something like hope blossomed in Anna’s chest.

  “There are consequences to changing the natural order,” her mother warned.

  “I do not care,” Finn replied. “How do I do it?”

  “Cut your hand and his, place the wounds together,” she explained, taking a step forward. “This can only be done if you are entirely willing to share a portion of your immortality. If you do not truly mean what you say, it will not work.”

  Anna searched her belt and found that both her dagge
rs still rested there. She had not noticed them until then. She withdrew one, and hurriedly offered it to Finn, but Finn presented her palm instead. “Help me,” she urged. “We will save him together.”

  Anna had never felt any love for Finn, but she would have kissed her right in that moment if Kai wasn’t slowly fading away between them. So instead of kissing her with her lips, she did it with her dagger, slowly drawing it across Finn’s open palm. She then took Kai’s hand that she’d been holding and spread it out, then sliced his palm in the same direction.

  Finn leaned across his body and intertwined her bloody fingers with his. Deeply concentrating, her eyes drifted shut.

  “It may take some time,” Finn’s mother warned, but Finn seemed unable to hear her. She laid down beside Kai with her mouth near his shoulder, maintaining a tight grip on his hand.

  Anna watched them for several moments, willing whatever Finn was doing to work, then turned her gaze back to Finn’s mother. “Can you tell me how to take us back? Saving him will do little good if we are trapped in this place.”

  “Give it time,” she explained. “You are not meant to be here, and you will eventually be pulled back. Falling asleep might help.”

  It was difficult for Anna to remember she was talking to Finn’s mother, and not Finn, they looked so similar, but she had to remember she didn’t know this woman. She needed to be cautious.

  “Why did you come here?” she asked finally.

  Finn’s mother tilted her head. “My daughter is on a dangerous path, and there are many things she does not know. Many things she refuses to know. They will come to her eventually, and I would like to make amends with her before they do.”

  “You make it sound like she’d cause you harm,” Anna observed.

  “My dear,” she replied, “she’s quite capable of harming us all. It is why my clan has acted with caution. Why all have acted with caution. You would be well advised to do the same, Gray Lady.”

  With that, the mist began to gather once more, and she turned to walk away. She had almost faded from sight, when she turned to face Anna. “The exchange of life will take a large toll on her,” she explained, gesturing with a nod toward Finn. “Make sure she remembers I was the one to help her. You would do well to remind her of your part as well.” She turned and slowly faded from sight.