Page 43 of Prince of the Northwest Forest
Wait. Fuck.“I don’t know what you two are saying,” I blurt.
“He’s speaking clearly,” she says, her brows furrowed and a look of panic in her eyes. “Say something to Feder.”
I turn to Feder and open my mouth, but no words come out.
Feder tilts his head. He moves his mouth. I don’t understand a damn thing.
Mother gestures quickly to my father and my security, who approach. “Björn, the sorcerer may have stolen Kalle’s gift of communication.”
My father’s eyes widen. “Firecats. Say something to Hazel,” he orders.
I open my mouth, but it’s like there’s a void in my brain. The part I use to communicate with animals is just … missing. I can’t draw on any of my storehouse of words or phrases or even feelings. English? Yes. But there’s nothing else.
Red fire rises inside me. How dare they mess with my gift?
I turn to Feder now, and I think he’s going to cry. I bite my lip to keep from tearing up myself.
I rely on the gossip of the blue jays and the snarkiness of the raccoons. The sleepy know-it-all-ness of the bears and how the squirrels go everywhere and tell everyone everything almost as much as the blue jays do.
Without my network of animals, how will I maintain peace? How will I govern the forest? How will I be able to warn them of impending danger?
I turn to my father, but before I say anything, he nods. “This is a very grave situation indeed.”
Understated words, but I can hear the panic under them. This curse, or whatever it is, is bad enough on its own, but if I can’t marry the princess today, how are we going to pay the fae?
I hesitate. If I don’t marry Eleanor, perhaps Justice could be mine. Internally, I shake my head. “I need to go after the sorcerer,” I say. “I need to reverse this curse and bring back mybride. I can’t imagine how scared she must be. First to be forced to marry. Then to be kidnapped. I must help her.”
“We will send the birds to find her,” Mother says. “Surely they can’t have made it far. Someone must have seen where they went.”
“You can do that if you want, but she’s my bride, and we have no time for plans more complicated than this: I am going after her. Besides, if the sorcerer stole my gift, they could be using it to tell the animals not to report. And they could cloak themselves. Get beyond our borders. Or even travel through the Fae Realm. I shall leave immediately.”
“You must bring security with you, at least,” my mother says. She gives Feder some type of instruction, and he takes off.
“But if I cannot talk with them …” I eye Hazel and Martin.
My mother turns to them and says something that, again, I don’t understand. This is bad. Very bad. I’m trembling. I grind my teeth, and heat flushes my body. I clench my hands into fists, my nails biting into my palms.
“This problem must be fixed,” I announce. “I’m headed to the castle to pack, and then I am going to go find them.”
“Where are you going to look?”
I throw up my hands. “There are too many possibilities. I think the place to start is the Fae Realm. If the sorcerer was from there, it seems reasonable that’s where he’d return.”
“I do not want you to go,” my mother says.
“I’m not going to just sit here. I need to do something.”
She turns to my father, and an unspoken conversation passes between them. “Fine. Go,” she says. “And son?”
I nod.
“Be safe.”
Feder returns with my cloak and sword, which I accept with thanks in English, since that’s all I’m capable of now. I kiss Mother on her cheek, give my father a curt bow, and take offtoward the castle. As Hazel and Martin follow me, I’ve never felt more lonely. Because while I suppose we can gesture to each other, there’s no way that we’re going to be able to achieve more than basic communication.
I push past the crowd of people leaving the amphitheater and take off at a fast clip down the trail toward home.
I hear footsteps behind me, and a voice I recognize calls out, “Kalle! Wait.”
