“My name is Wynn,” she said. “I need to go home.”
More murmurs in strange words.
“You are to come with us.” An elf motioned behind him. Two more green men, and one green woman jumped out of the strange wagons. They rushed to Wynn’s sides. They hurt her as they bent her arms together and tied her wrists tightly with a rope.
“No!” she cried. “I don’t like that.” She couldn’t say anything else before her throat closed up and her thoughts didn’t come to her mouth anymore. She wanted to go home.
The man in the front leaned very close to her. She saw his orange eyes flash as his mouth set in a grim line. “You belong to us now.”
CHAPTER FOURTEENElric
TWISTED TREES LOOMED OVER ELRIC on the edge of the Nightfell Wood. Cold mist rose from the damp ground. He could feel the wetness of the air on his face and couldn’t fight the urge to shudder. It was still very early, and not yet fully light. Elric wasn’t sure bright light ever made it through the thick canopy of leaves above them. It felt very strange here, like the trees could reach down and steal any happy thought from his head. He tried to imagine Wynn laughing and singing in this place as she chased after Mildred. It didn’t seem possible.
He peered through the shield. On this side, the surface of it looked like a storm of dark clouds that washed everything within the shield with bleak gray. It was as if the light, magic, and vibrant colors of the fairy realm simply didn’t exist at all. He could see the great tree in the distance, but it appeared as dark and lifeless as the trees around him. No blue lights shone in the stone towers surrounding it. The fields of colorful flowers looked like barren winter fields.
Osmund brushed his shoulders, as if shaking spiders off his vest. “Well, this is awful.” He gave Elric a hard pat on the shoulder. “Let’s get moving.”
Elric shook his foggy head. “Right,” he said. “You’re right. Are you any good at tracking?”
Osmund made a wobbly motion with his hand. “I didn’t really have a need back home.”
Elric nodded. “Then I’ll lead the way.” He’d often had to track lost sheep through the woods, or hunt down the predators that stalked his flock. He tried to push the bad feeling out of his mind as he looked to the ground for clues. The dirt was soft, which was good for tracking, and the soil held a lot of clay. Tracks would be deep and clear, and they would hold their form.
He immediately found several footprints. One a muffled shape of a foot, and the other distinct with toes. He also found chicken prints. But there seemed to be two sets of them, and they scrambled all over. He also found the long, twisting whiplike marks of the belly of a snake.
It looked like Wynn had found trouble almost immediately. His heart sped up. He couldn’t let his imagination run away with him. Too much was at stake. He had to look only at what was in front of him and follow the clues she left him. Her footprints crisscrossed the clearing, but then led into the woods. “This way.” Elric pointed through a gap in the trees. He couldn’t really call it a path.
Osmund swung his ax and lopped off a branch. He pulled a crystal out of his pocket and set it in a split in the wood. It glowed with a soft light.
“That’s one of the starlight crystals.” Elric came closer. He had several of them embedded in the wood of the tree above his bed. “How did you get it out from the wall?”
“When you live in a tree”—Osmund gave a half shrug—“an ax comes in handy.”
“You didn’t!” Elric stared at Osmund.
“Let’s not worry about that now.” Osmund lowered the stick to the ground to better illuminate the tracks. “I’m sure it will grow back. . . .” He took a couple of steps forward, concentrating on the tracks. “Eventually,” he added. “I knew we would need a light under the canopy.”
“How?” Elric asked.
Osmund looked up at him and grimaced before inspecting the ground again. “Because I’ve been here before.”
“What happened?” Elric asked in shock.
Osmund bent to pick up one of Mildred’s dark feathers. “It was foolish, and Zephyr’s fault.” Osmund sighed. “No, it was my fault.”
He searched the ground for another clue, twirling Mildred’s feather between his fingers. “When I was about your age, Zephyr and I were stealing pies from the kitchen. I told him I wanted to see what was on the other side of the shield. He was livid. He said he wouldn’t help me. I threatened to tell Lord Raven about some terrible prank he had pulled. He still insisted he wouldn’t help, said it was too dangerous. I called him a coward. I’m sorry for that.
“That night Zephyr woke me up. He stayed silent and motioned me to follow. He led me out to the shield and I stepped through, thinking he would be there to help me back. But he disappeared, and I was trapped.” Osmund tossed the feather to the ground and peered more intently at the path.
“Zephyr just abandoned you?” Elric couldn’t believe his friend would do such a thing.
“I confronted him about it when he caught me trying to undo the spell on your door. He swears he never saw me that night. He claims he never knew what happened. I’m sure he doesn’t want to be held responsible for my disappearance, but it bothers me that he won’t admit he made a mistake.” Osmund faced Elric. “I hope he’ll be there when we need him.”
“He will be,” Elric insisted. He couldn’t believe Zeph would leave Osmund in the Nightfell Wood alone. Something
