like wind in the branches, accompanied by a faint creaking of wood. Leaves rustled as a shiver of icy Dolana quivered the air.
Chanter paused, then lifted his other hand and reached into the darkness, which engulfed his arms to the elbows. He withdrew one arm and raised it, and a tiny shred of mist drifted from his fingers, followed by a soft patter of rain on the leaves above. Freeing himself, he lowered his hands. A glimmer of fire brightened the air in a tiny cluster of flames that burnt before him for a moment.
Talsy stared at him, entranced. He had invoked the Powers so gently that even a timid deer would not have been alarmed. Now he weaved them together with deft twisting motions, fire and water, air and earth. A shimmering rainbow cord appeared in his hands, aglow yet wet, sighing with wind yet glittering with grit. He reached into the darkness with it, groped, and pulled back.
The cord twined around a being that made Talsy gasp with wonder, drawing it from the shadows. If it had a form she could not divine it. Its outline wavered constantly, yet it had eyes of pearly sorrow and tears that glittered amongst its soft folds of emerald green and deep brown. A mouth moaned with the soft sadness of growing trees, and hands gripped Chanter's with gentle loam fingers and tender green shoots. Great wings of anguish trailed it, formed into shining petals of a million colours that dragged at the air.
The Mujar drew it forward with his shining elemental cord, and a great sigh went through the trees. The twined branches parted, allowing light to pour down in dapples of gold, and a breeze stirred the leaves. The forest came alive as it filled with warmth and sunlight, and the shadows gave way to rich brown bark and the verdure of leaves. Chanter held the being trapped with his cord, its sorrow and anguish running from it like a silver stream of emotion.
'Kuran,' said Chanter. 'Your hatred is killing you and your trees. Let it go.'
The forest replied in a whisper of sound so faint Talsy could hardly hear the words it bore.
'Mujar, ever are you life, yet death stalks the land, and the city of men will fall.'
'The fate of men is their own, but you will die too without the joy to live.'
'When the city of men falls, the forest will rejoice.'
Chanter nodded. 'That is the way of Kuran, but when Marrana comes to gather, be not amongst the fallen.'
'Release me,' the Kuran breathed. 'I mean you no harm, Mujar.'
'No harm to me and mine, then shall I release you.'
'No harm,' the forest whispered. 'Lay claim and it is yours, walker of life, though sorrows it shall bring you.'
'Sorrows shall dog me ever; this is no concern of yours.'
'Take it then!' The words spat from a cracking tree that split apart to reveal golden wood, its leaves falling in a green cloud. With a tearing groan, the tree fell amid splintering branches. The Kuran writhed in Chanter's grasp, and he opened his hands, releasing the rainbow cord that sundered into sparkles of flame, drops of water, a gust of air and a shower of dust. The Kuran vanished, taking with it the sun, the soft warm air and greenness. The dark silence clamped down once more, returning the forest to its former gloom.
Chanter turned and helped Talsy to her feet, the roots falling away. She rubbed her aching legs and shivered. The Mujar tugged her forward, and she stumbled over the black, twisted ground behind him. He walked faster now, dragging her along. Wet, hanging moss slapped her and cobwebs festooned her face in a silver veil. She tried to follow Chanter's steps, placing her feet where his had been, finding a sure path from root to root, unhindered by the twisted wood. The forest parted for him, but the trees rattled and sighed, hating her. Leaves lashed her, yet did not harm her. The forest Kuran, now thoroughly aroused, made its presence felt as it chased her from its depths, speeding her steps with its animosity.
Talsy noticed that no saplings grew in this forest, and many of the old, twisted trees were long dead, grey and bleached. The stench of decay, mixed with mould and musty wood, hung in the still air. Chanter hurried on, and she panted as she tried to keep up, the atmosphere tainting her tongue with dust. A branch snapped off behind her, crashed to the ground and shattered into slivers of dead grey wood. She ran faster, her lungs burning with effort.
A glimmer of light showed through the trees ahead, and they burst into warm sunlight. Talsy stumbled and collapsed, unable to take another step. Sitting on the warm green grass, she looked back at the dark forest as it sighed a rank breeze. Chanter stood beside her, staring at the wood with narrowed eyes. Deep within the forest, a tree fell with a tearing crash, and branches rattled as if a strong wind stirred them.
'What was that all about?' she gasped.
'The Kuran hates Truemen. She wanted to kill you.'
'Why?'
The Mujar glanced around. 'Because of this.' He made a sweeping gesture.
Talsy turned to look at a sloping field of stumps. Thousands of trees had once grown here. Their grey stumps extended far down the hillside to the edge of the cultivated land that surrounded a vast stone city sprawled along the coast. Miles of green fields dotted with stumps stretched away in either direction, the dark forest bordering them on one side and a golden beach on the other. Further up the coast, waves frothed against tall white cliffs and gulls rode the sea breeze, too far away for their cries to be heard. Grazing beasts cropped the grass in vast herds, moving amongst the stumps and an occasional bleached log.
'The Kuran once had a vast forest,' Chanter explained. 'It stretched all along the coast, from the mountains to the sea. Then Truemen came and cut it down to build ships and houses. They burnt the wood in their fires and furnaces and cleared the land for their beasts. Hatred consumes her now, and she's killing her trees.'
'But she has power. Why can't she fight back?'
'She has little power. All she commands are the trees. The deeper into the forest you go, the more powerful she is, but on the edges she can do little but rattle branches.'
'So as long as Truemen cut down the trees on the edge of the forest, she can't harm them.'
'No. I doubt any Trueman ventures deep into that wood.'
She rubbed her aching legs, then rose and sat on a stump. Chanter gazed across the land.
'Why did you say she might die? Surely she's immortal if she's an elemental or a wood spirit?' Talsy asked.
Chanter shook his head. 'She is neither. A Kuran is part of the wood, like a soul. They exist only in old forests, and are many thousands of years old. If the forest dies, she will die with it. Her hatred has driven away the birds that spread the seeds and the bees that pollinate the flowers. No young trees grow, and the old ones will die. Her life span has no limit, but she can be killed.'
Talsy considered this, frowning. 'What did she mean, 'death stalks the land, and the city of men shall fall'?'
'She was speaking of the Hashon Jahar.'
'Was it a prophecy?'
He shrugged. 'Sort of. Come, let's find somewhere to camp.'
Picking up the bag, he set off down the sloping field, angling away from the distant city. Talsy followed, studying the sprawling coastal metropolis. It seemed that the forest's wood had mostly been used to build ships, for the city was made almost entirely from stone. Tall buildings, the likes of which she had never seen before, rose above the thick wall that pinned the city to the sea. Square towers, their walls spotted with many narrow windows, stood proud but ugly, topped by grey slate roofs. Some buildings owned arched doorways, carved balconies and balustrades of white rock. One stood out from the rest by virtue of a domed roof that appeared to be made of pale green crystal. Certainly this was a mightier city than Horran, prosperous and well kept. Talsy longed to explore it, but respected Chanter's aversion to it. She would rather stay close to him than go into the city, and she trotted to catch up with him.
'Is that Rashkar?'
He glanced back at her. 'No, that's Jishan. Rashkar is on the far side of the Narrow Sea.'
'Where's that?'
'Right in front of you.' He gestured to the blue expanse before them. 'On a clear day you can see the far side.'
Talsy squinted across the sparkling water, but could make out nothing but haze in the distance. 'How will we get across?'
