Page 149 of A Promise of Peridot
?I didn’t think I’d ever tire of seeing the world from the back of Kane’s dragon form. Every tree, cottage, and wheelbarrow reduced to a tiny, fuzzy blotch of green or brown and then filtered through a haze of clouds passed by in flight. It was easier to remember how simple things were up here. How finite. Somehow the stark enormity of our continent contrasted with our small, blurry lives brought me a great, curious kind of peace. For those fleeting hours, among soft, pale rays of fading sunlight and soaring eagles that flew at Kane’s side, I didn’t feel the crushing pressure of all that lay ahead.
And then, in the distance, I made out the singular, volcano-like island past Crag’s Hollow, where Lake Stygian became the shimmering Ocean of Ore.
Erupting from the churning, murky water, Hemlock Isle almost resembled a mountain, if the point had collapsed in on itself and left sharp shards of rock and mineral in its wake. Angry whitecaps of foam smashed against the stone where the land protruded from the sea, and before I saw what awaited us inside, Kane hurtled usdown through the narrow mouth of the island, as if we were a thread moving through the eye of a needle.
Sea salt was quickly replaced by damp earth and decomposing wood. A wet, green forest stretched beneath us, not too unlike the Shadow Woods. But this forest was not tangled, knotted, and dark, a harrowing moat of branches around the jewel that was Shadowhold. No, this was something entirely different.
As we swooped and weaved through trees, I could make out doors and windows built into the trunks and bark around us. Wooden roofs and rope ladders connected lantern-lit rooms to one another. An entire city built not on top of the woodland or in its stead, but rather within the trees themselves.
We were moving too fast to discern any people, but there must have been thousands of prisoners exiled here over the years to have built a city such as this one into the mouth of the island.
Finally, Kane landed on a grainy wood platform suspended between three trees with mossy rope and dotted with glowing golden lanterns. Amid the cacophony of birdsong and the thick, earthy smell of the forest, I dismounted Kane, my eyes searching to confirm we were alone, and I felt him shift back to himself, the sharp taste of lighte in the air and heavy on my tongue.
“Whatisthis place?”
A metropolis stretched above and below us. Homes, armories, blacksmith tables, shops for produce—all carved from the trees, dotted with torches, and tied together by a web of interconnected walkways, ladders, bridges, and ramps.
“Hemlock Isle is quite the feat of human will, isn’t it, bird?”
I merely nodded, my eyes still glued to the suspended passageways and unfamiliar pulley systems.
“When I took the throne from King Oberon, he told me verylittle about the prison land. Just that there were men and women in Evendell that were too dangerous, too cunning, to be kept in dungeons alone. Witches and sorcerers especially could escape almost any cell, as evidenced by the jailbreak we had back in Shadowhold.”
I shook away the memory of my aiding Halden and his magic friend in their escape from Kane’s keep.
“Oberon’s grandfather found the island first—a mountain protruding from the sea, hollowed out, with a forest growing inside, the cliffs that make up the walls of the island, both internal and external, too smooth to be climbed—there was no way in or out, unless you could fly.”
“What about other Fae? Or those who can use spells to fly?”
“There are no Fae in Evendell with enough lighte to shift other than Griffin and me. And in all my years, I’ve never heard of, let aloneknown, magic powerful enough to allow for flight. Still, I’ve had guards stationed at the lighthouse in Crag’s Hollow for the last five decades, in case anyone flew in or out.” Kane shrugged. “They’ve never seen a thing.”
“So, you and Griffin bring prisoners here in your shifted forms—”
“Or we send them on one of my other trained, flying creatures.”
I gave Kane a look of dismay, but he merely shrugged. “You think you’ve seen all the winged tricks I have up my sleeve?” He shook his head in mock disappointment. “Come on, bird. Give me some credit.”
Now was not the time, but later, without a doubt, I would be asking for a rundown on all the other grotesque creatures Kane kept in his castles.
“So, King Oberon flew prisoners here, left them to their own devices, and one day he found they had built all of this?”
“Indeed. The island has no hills or fields for farmland, and the lower down you go”—Kane peered over the platform into the dense, darkened treetops below us—“the less sunlight you get. So, with few tools to work with, the prisoners built into the trees that were already growing. Up and up and up.”
My eyes swept over the pathways that twined and twisted ahead of us, shrouded in shadow from the steep cliffs of the mountain that surrounded the island on all sides. Like being inside a giant vase, the bottom littered with trees. And the forest that grew upward—it was as if the branches were trying, straining, to reach the sun that evaded them.
Within the maze of rickety bridges, mismatched stairs, and torchlit homes were dirt-caked men and women milling about. The bony spine of a shirtless boy reflected the light of a dim lantern and snagged my eye in the distance. The child couldn’t have been more than Leigh’s age, and he was climbing a ladder with some kind of skinned animal leg wedged between his teeth.
My stomach turned thinking about life in these conditions. Even for prisoners—thieves, murderers, enemies of the kingdom—it didn’t seem just. I hadn’t thought enough about the ramifications of being with Kane. That if I were to survive Lazarus, and save this kingdom, that I might truly... rule it by his side. I waited for the racing heart, clammy palms, tightness in my chest—the panic I knew would come at the thought of such an undertaking.
But no such feeling came.
In fact, I realized I might be decent at helping Kane rule Onyx. I had skills that he lacked: patience, positivity—I didn’t have his temper nor the cynicism that sometimes crept into his worldview.
Something bright and hopeful settled in me at the thought of thegood I could do for the people of Onyx. Maybe for the people of Evendell altogether. Maybe I would even start with this place.
I opened my mouth to ask about children born on the island, and thus undeserving of this fate, but Kane cut me off. “I adore your beautiful brain, and all the questions and thoughts I know are percolating inside of it. But don’t let the elflike tree houses fool you. This entire island is inhabited by the most menacing criminals born to our continent. I’d like to get you out of here as quickly as possible. Then you can ask me anything you wish.”
“Agreed. Where to?”
