Page 6 of The Shadow Wand

Branneth shoots Thierren a rattled look. “Be best when we’ve cut this whole forest down, I’m thinking.” He swallows as he glances at the trees. There’s a disturbing sense of the canopy of leaves thickening. Branches tangling. The air growing even more charged.

With hostility.

It’s pouring off the trees like an ill wind, but Thierren refuses to shrink back in the face of it. He knows theBookbackward and forward, and he knows how this story ends.

With your complete annihilation, he thinks at the trees. Courage and comfort wash over him, along with a fierce desire to usher in the Reaping Times and fight for the Holy Magedom.

The wind picks up, the trees seeming to loom over them even closer than before. The horses prance and whinny, needing to be reined in once more.

Get out.

“Can you feel it?” Branneth asks, his voice now a coarse whisper, his face edged with fear. “It’s like we’re surrounded. Like...” He grimaces, as if trying to convince himself that he’s spinning a nonsense tale. “It’s like we’re headed into atrap.” He chuckles low in his throat, but that edge of fear rims his eyes as he peers into the forest’s shadows and mutters grimly to himself. “Only good Fae’s a dead Fae.” He turns to Thierren, as if seeking his approval. “Eh, Thierren?”

At the head of their contingent, Commander Bane raises his hand, signaling for their attention. The smell of burning wood drifts on the air.

Their collective pace slows to a halt as they come to the road’s end and are met by two Mage soldiers on foot. Thierren blinks at the road’s abrupt terminus, marveling at how far north they’ve traveled.

Incredible,he thinks, his skin prickling at the realization.The end of the Northern Wayroad. Its farthest reach. Nothing but wilds beyond for leagues.

One of the Mages walks forward, his expression serious as he salutes Commander Bane, fist to chest, then jerks his head slightly toward the wall of forest before them.

“They’re just up ahead,” he says. “We’ve flushed out a whole pack of Fae. Dryads, the lot of ’em.”

Tree Fae.

Thierren peers at the forest before them, his heartbeat quickening, every sense sharpening in anticipation of his first engagement with Fae. He pulls in a deep, bolstering breath, feeling lit up with a renewed sense of holy purpose, eager to finally engage with the horrific Evil Ones in defense of the Magedom.

“We dismount here, Mages.” Commander Bane’s voice rings out from the front of their party, effortlessly dominant.

They all dismount, tether the restless horses to trees to be cared for by the Calvary Mage, and make their way into the forest on foot, following the commander’s assured lead, the smell of smoke growing more pungent.

Thierren pulls out his wand and readies it as he recites wind and air spells in his mind, weaving the magery together inside his lines.

They’re dangerous, these Tree Fae, some of them able to access multiple lines of elemental power and feed it through branches. And sometimes they use wildlife in their attacks. They just got word of Dryads farther south of here ambushing Mages with small cyclones and flocks of raptors in retaliation for land being cleared.

Land that belongs to the Magedom.

No matter.Thierren glares at the threatening trees as his unit moves deeper into the forest.I’ll be conjuring a great cyclone very soon to destroy both you and your Fae minions.

The piercing sound of a child’s scream jolts through Thierren, slowing his steps. He looks to the other soldiers in confusion, but they seem to be ignoring the sound.

Unsettled, Thierren follows his unit forward, stepping over roots, his boot heels sinking slightly into the soft, mossy soil.

The sound of a child crying.

A baby’s wail splitting the air.

Women pleading in low, tortured tones in a strange language.

Thierren feels a harder stab of confusion. He steps through the trees and looks over a small meadow that ends at an even thicker band of forest. Fires are smoldering along the sides of the meadow where trees have been set ablaze by the soldiers.

And there they are.

The Dryads.

A line of pointy-eared, forest green Tree Fae are standing, side by side, before the far wall of untouched Northern Forest.

As if they’re forming a barrier with their own bodies.

---