Page 13 of Queen of the Wildwood
My arms scrapped the floor. I pressed my tongue firmly against the roof of my mouth to keep from crying out, and I tasted iron in the back of my throat. I had to make my last action count.
Again, I saw Aelbrin’s hazel eyes hiding a deep well of thoughts, but every decision led him down the path of an impossible choice. He was damned. If he did not obey the Dark Queen, he would damn the last of his people.
But what about my people? Even now, the queen roused an army to destroy them, an army of nightmares and orcs to tear through the village. It was impossible to warn my people.
Ignoring the pain, I crawled closer to the tree. A smell emitted from it, the odor of a slow death. I reached out my hand, unsure why I felt the need to touch the tree. My fingers wrapped around wood, smooth instead of rough, and emotions flashed in front of me, heart-rending and terrifying.
A scream bolted out of my mouth, but the sensation was quickly replaced with a flood of warmth. My eyes closed, and a smile came to my face as a happy memory of my past rose in my thoughts.
I recalled sitting in front of the fire, wrapped in a blanket in my mother’s arms. She hummed a tune under her breath and rocked back and forth, back and forth. I reached out my tiny hand to wrap it around one of her slender fingers, and she squeezed me tightly. I felt safe, sure, right. Nothing terrible could ever happen to me.
A plethora of feelings surged through me as though I were standing on a cliff. The spirit of the tree nudged me and a velvety voice whispered, so softly I almost did not hear it at first. “Will you take the burden? Will you take our pain? Will you save us?”
Tears brimmed over, striking my cheeks. “Yes.” I whispered. “Yes. If I can.”
“Hold tight,” warned the tree. Mother Tree.
I closed my eyes and squeezed a knotty root. My senses took over, and the queen shouted in a murderous voice. “Let go of the tree, you fool! Let go. You know not what you do.”
I held on tighter.
“Aelbrin, take up your sword and kill her,” the queen shrieked. “If you do not do so this instant, I will send the firedrakes to slay your people.”
“My queen, a blood oath cannot be forsaken so easily,” came Aelbrin’s horrified voice.
“Do you not know the heights of my power? Do it now!” she ordered.
I clung to the tree, even as I heard the ominous ring of a sword being drawn from a scabbard.
Would he do it? Even after our night of passion, would he really slay me to save his people?
A humming began in my head. The tree was pouring into me, its thoughts, hopes, and dreams. A thousand memories flooded in, moving in the blink of an eye. It churned within me like a windstorm blowing into a cyclone so powerful and intense none could stand in its way. Something vibrated in the pit of my being and my fingers went stiff. Magic pushed against the binding spell, undoing Raven’s work and seeped out of my hands.
Overwhelming sensations convulsed through me. My teeth clattered, and my eyes came open, as though I were filled to the brim and could not contain my magic any longer. Still holding onto the tree, I opened my eyes, stood to my feet and turned around.
My mouth hung open at the sight I saw. The slaves were crouched on the ground in front of the braziers, cowering and weeping. Aelbrin stood in the center of the room, facing the queen. His sword was drawn. It was a wide blade, meant for cleaving heads from shoulders, its weight? forcing him to hold on with both hands. Designs etched the hilt, many of them old runes I’d studied before, blessings and curses. He swung the sword, and I realized he intended to kill—not me—but the Dark Queen.
His bravery emboldened me. Why would he sacrifice himself, and his people? Surely not for me? For if she were gone, who would stand between the people and the dark forest? Who would hold back the tide of her demons, leaderless and ready to turn every village into a blood bath?
“Let go,” whispered Mother Tree.
I obeyed and aimed my tingling palms at the Dark Queen.
She evaded Aelbrin’s blade, laughing and swearing, telling him the many ways she would torture first me, forcing him to watch. She seemed to have forgotten I was behind her, and a grim smile came to my lips.
The power bubbling within me felt good and strong, and although I sensed a dark energy behind it, I liked it. It was like a forbidden fruit. Once tasted, the delectable pleasure became too heady and delicious to let go of ever again.
Energy surged through me, out of my fingers like lightning, and slammed into the back of the Dark Queen.
A stillness came over the air, and the queen’s body went rigid. Her blood red mouth came open in a silent scream of shock. Her body doubled over. Bent at the waist. She held out her arms to keep her balance, staying on her swaying feet.
Pent up rage poured out of me, and the foundations of the castle shook with the current of power flooding through my veins. My ears popped, and I realized I was howling as every unfairness, humiliation, and shame in my life was dealt with, one after the other, making the queen the noose upon which I hung the evil that had befallen me.
Aelbrin’s blade went up again. Before he brought it down, he glanced at me. There was a question in his eyes. Although his jaw was tight, I understood he was asking permission, asking me to back down so he could finish what he started.
Power surged through me, and I reached out to hold it back, but it seemed like a broken dam, churning with strength, too strong to pull back. I managed to nod at him, even though magic leaked out of my eyes in a dazzling array of green and gold, casting its shimming luster across the throne room.
The sword came down, straight and fast, glinting in the firelight, and the Dark Queen’s head rolled end over end. Her cold dead eyes glittered as they stared directly at me, as though she could see, even in death, what I’d done.
