Page 9 of The Anointed's Paladin

Music started from below. I couldn’t see the gathering, so I pretended they were at a gala. It sounded fancy. Not sprites, but big people—lords and ladies, royalty, knights. They would talk and feast, the music there to amuse and delight the guests.

I hummed, fingers trailing down to summon shoots from the mossy ground. I wove them around me, fashioning a ballgown like the ones I’d seen in books. Our clothes were always woven from plants and so were built around vines and strings, with leaves and flowers here and there. But the clothes big folk wore were different—large swaths of fabric, sewn together. My newly made dress touched the floor as I danced, and I smiled. In my fantasy, I would walk down and join in the gala, dancing until my feet were sore.

Dance just like I had seen in pictures, where peopletouched. I stopped, gazing at the shameful illustration I’d strung on my wall. It was of two figures. They gazed at each other, lost in their own world. As if each were a priceless treasure to the other. His hand was gently laid on her wrist, and she was resting her arm over his shoulder. Theirother hands were locked together, intertwined. A rip down the middle marked where Laurel had torn it down.

What would it be like? To meet someone special. Special enough to promise they’d treasure you forever.

Blood is the most powerful bond.

He’d ask me for a drop of my blood, and I’d say yes. Then we’d be married, bonded together. Family.

“Maybe you’ll be a dancer,” I told the pod next to me. “A dreamer like me. It’d be nice to have someone who understands.”

I gazed back out at the celebration below. “Or maybe you’ll be gifted. Told your whole life how powerful you are. Then they’ll stick you up here to help grow babies.” I paused, considering that. “I hope so. Maybe they’ll let me leave then.”

I imagined a reply from the pod and continued. “No, I’ll come back. Don’t worry. I just want some time to explore. See the world. We can take turns. I promise.”

“Nidori.” A voice came from behind me, and I turned, surprised. Usually, only Laurel, my minder, came to visit me, and this voice was lower than hers.

I gasped and sank to my knees as I took in the figure before me. I was only slightly distracted by the way my dress puffed out around me as I knelt. So pretty. Butshewas here, and I couldn’t be doing silly things like admiring dresses.

Leihandra, the lady of the wild. She wore a robe of green leaves that covered her bark-like skin. Her eyes were catlike, and her hair was clipped short, close to her head. It seemed her face couldn’t quite decide what it wanted to look like, and I had to focus on her hair to avoid being distracted by that, too. She wasn’t quite a big person, but still two times my height. Despite the awe and joy I felt looking at her, worry tugged at my heart.

“Lei Lei,” I said, rising. “You shouldn’t be here. If others see you—”

“Peace, my child. I am not here for them. I am here for you.”

She reached out for me, and it took me a second to realize she wanted touch. I flew up, tears welling in my eyes as I took her hand in my tiny ones.

She gave me a sad smile. “I am sorry it took me so long to come. I have to be careful where I tread these days. But there are plans afoot, and I have chosen you to be my champion. You have been shackled to this duty for too long, wasting the talents I have given you. Go, Nidori. I need you to travel south.”

Travel south? Leave the grove? Leave the little ones?

“But the podlings…” I glanced at the infant curled up in the bud beside me. I had been the only one who had keptevery oneof them alive, year after year. A miracle, my people said.

“Nidori. This is not your burden to bear. You have done enough. Now is your time to go. See the world.”

“Yes, my lady,” I said. A guilty glee was building inside me. A relief. She wasorderingme to leave. Nothing compared to a calling from Leihandra, even if most of us had forgotten that.

“I will be with you, guiding you along the way. If you succeed, I will be able to make you my anointed. Give you the ability to take on the form you dream of.”

My breath caught. “You could change me into a big person?”

“You would have both forms and able to change into them as you please.”

That was more than anything I’d ever dreamed of.

“I won’t fail you.” I beamed, then added, “I wouldn’t, anyway. Even if you didn’t reward me.”

She smiled. “I know, my child. That is why I chose you.”

She left, vanishing and leaving only the smell of pine needles behind.

I gathered my treasures in a small pack and looked at the pods. My heart twisted as I reached out to touch one of them. I closed my eyes, giving them as much energy as I could spare. Not all of them were guaranteed to survive without me.

But that thought had kept me here for three hundred years, through countless cycles of podlings. It was time I did something for myself.

“Good luck to all of you,” I whispered. “I have to go. My mother needs me.”

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