Page 93 of Artemysia
It makes me wonder where the Lindwyrm usually lives, or if there are others in the forest. With wings, they can’t possibly only reside underground.
Finally, after passing what seems like another thousand trees, Throg halts. “It ends here. No more scent.”
“There’s nothing but forest. Where would they have gone?” I scan the shadows. “ Are you sure you didn’t lose the trail—”
It’s Throg’s turn to make a fist and indicate where he would slug me for the insult.
“You guys don’t see that tree?” Ivy asks.
She rides closer, peering into a tree with a dark hollow. A normal oak, except its trunk has split in two and its branches grow left and right into the canopy of taller trees above it.
“Look inside.” She gestures at a small hole in the trunk.
Throg and I trot up beside her. In the hollow of the oak, a star glimmers brilliantly. Not like a firefly or candlelight. A single golden star twinkles in an infinitely dark and vast space within the mysterious hollow. Flickering. Floating. It’s like I’m gazing upon a midnight sky in another realm, where only one star exists.
I want to reach out to touch it, but it appears so far away.
“The scent stops here? Is this some sort of…door or gateway?” I wonder aloud at the swirling light in the dark, deep hollow.
“We’re in a creepy children’s tale,” Ivy says, dismounting. She looks up at me, frowning. “In Honeygrove, there’s a bedtime story I was toldabout magic doors in trees that lead you to another world—a land of sugar. But you had to sell your soul to a witch. The lesson was, don’t sell your soul to a witch.”
I swing off my elk to stand beside her. “How do we enter?” I rap the tree trunk with my knuckles. Rough bark, solid wood.
Ivy thrusts her arm into the hollow to seize the star.
“It moves!” The star zips away from her grasp.
She stands aside for me, and I reach in. I don’t feel the inner bark of the tree. The hole is endlessly large inside.
I retract my arm. “What do you think? We have to catch the light?”
Throg releases his reins and leaps off. “Let me try.” He stretches a hand into the tree and chases the star with his fingers, grasping as if swatting bees.
He turns over his shoulder at me. “Captain, you’re faster.”
When he steps aside, I lean into the crevice. The golden burst of light moves. I anticipate where it might go, but it evades me. I chase it with one hand and dive my other hand in, clapping them together.
It vanishes. Darkness replaces the glow of the hollow. I retreat, surprised at the change. Perhaps that was our only chance.
“I may have broken it. The light disappeared.”
Before anyone can respond, our elk, idle behind us up until now, begin to stamp and paw the ground.
“Why are they frightened?” I grab their reins before they can run off, but Ivy’s elk rears, pulling me to my knees on the ground. Throg grabs the reins and helps me up. As we calm the animals, the tree’s hollow grows.
It expands in all directions until it appears to be the mouth of a cave—large enough for us to ride through. I glance at Throg to make sure he sees it too. His mouth hangs open.
“Am I hallucinating? Should I not have licked the glowing pink mushroom my elk was munching on?” Ivy whispers. “I was only curious…”
“Let’s go,” I say, clearing my throat, which has gone bone dry.
“Inside? Are you sure?” she asks.
“Scent trail stops here. Right, Throg?”
He sniffs the air. “They must have taken Riev through here.”
We remount our elk and ride forth into the unknown gate withuntold dangers. A magic hole in a magic tree. The split tree closes behind us with a slow, low-pitched moan.
