The swirl of cloaks and the stamp of feet filled my inner vision as the tree networked itself with others, giving me something close to a live feed of information. The trees became almost nature’s version of the internet, or GPS even. Kind of handy out here in the wilds. Pretty darn neat if I could take that back through the stones with me; I’d never get lost again.
The tree bristled at my thoughts and I let out a cry of surprise when I knew I understood what it was thinking. We’d never let you get lost.
I rubbed my hand along the bark. “I know,” I said out loud. I knew very little of what I was, or even why I was, but the one thing I knew for sure was that the trees were for my will. Of course, I didn’t know why, but I knew it all the same. The water, the plants, the flowers, all of nature’s power flowed towards me. And that was an advantage I wasn’t going to waste.
“I need to find the army. I can see them, but I don’t know where they are.” I spoke out loud.
I waited for a response. The bark rippled under my palm as though I were looking into the bright midday sun. I recognised the fire, the set of the logs around it. That was our settlement. The picture zoomed further out, and I could see the stones, my stones. Upon them stood a slender figure, a black cloak billowing as she stood on the highest stone. She was searching for me as much as I was looking for her. For a moment our eyes locked, her silver gaze piercing. The woman who had bought Phil into the world only to murder her at my feet stared back at me, her lips curved into a smile. The tree cracked, its bark flaying open like it had been struck by an axe. “Shit!” I pulled my hand away, but it was too late. It splintered with the speed of lightning, snapping at the middle and keeling over. “Bitch!” I cried, but my shout didn’t reach the Mage. The connection was severed with the fall of the tree.
I smoothed my hands over the bark, dropping to my knees as my fallen soldier lay on the floor. “I’m sorry.” A tear prickled my eye. Silly to cry over a tree, but its strength faded beneath my touch, the tingle of energy that it pulsed through my palm so willingly fading and ebbing like the beat of a stuttering heart.
Go, it whispered. Go.
My tear splashed on the silver bark, then another. The trees didn’t deserve to be hurt, much like when my father had chopped them down to make way for the stones. As much as the stones were mine, so were the trees and I would never want to hurt them.
My father.
For the first time I saw the priestess Mae and I as the same thing. This was what Heather had been hinting at all along.
We were the same thing.
The purple gem heated gently at my throat, tingling with reassurance.
Well, there was no way I was going to let the Mage and her army bring down my people the way she’d brought down the beautiful Silver Birch. I scrambled to my feet, watching as the place where my tears had fallen on the bark sprung with green moss. Swiftly, it buried the fallen tree in vibrant green, a fitting burial for a beautiful living thing.
Bending, I ran my hand along the soft moss. “Bless this soul,” I whispered, and then grabbing my skirts in my hands I ran back for the settlement.
Nobody else would fall today.
Chapter Six
The settlement was gathered into a crowd amongst the stones. The Mage and two tall soldiers stood in front of them. Even as I crept closer, I could hear the whimpers of children and some of the women.
Part of me wanted to fight. I wanted to connect to the earth and use all of nature’s force to beat these invaders back, but I also wanted to save the clan’s blood from being spilt. And it would spill, of that I had no doubt.
My own blood ran with a chilled shudder as I acknowledged the true reason why I couldn’t fight. I needed to go with them. With her, with those soldiers.
With my hood pulled up I wove my way through the crowd. The tremors of fear ate into me every time I brushed the arm of one of my people. Beneath my feet the earth pounded, but as no one else blinked or moved, scared the world was about to cave in, I assumed the earth was only beating for me.
Fingers tangled with mine and held me back, and I stole a glance to the side as Alana pulled me in close. “Stay back,” she whispered.
I met her gaze and shook my head. “Alana, I have to go. They will slaughter you all if I don’t.”
“No. Tristram will have a plan; he will protect you.”
I opened my mouth to tell her that Tristram wouldn’t be rescuing me today but swiftly shut it again as the clear ring of the Mage’s words fell over the clearing.
“I can sense you. I know you are here.”
Hell. My skin crawled, and I rubbed absently at the hairs on my arms. This was what I came for. This was why I stepped through the stones and left my own time far behind me.
With a last squeeze on Alana’s fingers, I pulled myself free. “I’m here and all yours,” I called loudly, allowing my voice to lift into the branches of the surrounding trees.
The Mage’s gaze rested on my face as I walked through the throng of people. The little refugee boy whose infected scalp I’d healed only a week or so before looked up at me with wide eyes as
