Page 17 of Queen Takes Triune
I didn’t want to alarm the crow queen, especially if she was protecting her eggs, but I didn’t know how crows in particular felt about wolves. “Not yet. Only if there’s danger.”
Rik gave orders to the rest of my Blood. “Guillaume, Mehen, be ready to come through immediately if she has need of you. The rest of you spread out and guard the perimeter of the grove. Nevarre, Xin, lead the way. I’ll have our queen’s back.”
We made our way across the boulders and rocks that formed the edge of the grotto. Steam curled in the air, dampening my skin enough that strands of my hair stuck to my face. It also made the rocks slippery. Rik hovered close at my back, ready to grab me at the slightest slip, but I wasn’t worried. Every inch of this place had been created for me, indirectly by me, or at least, by my magic gifted from the goddesses. I was descended from Isis, but this was Morrigan’s grove. Even if I’d tried to leap to my death from the top of the tree onto the rocks below, I doubted it would work. I’d already died once to grow the magnificent old trees. The price had been paid. Gladly.
Nevarre glanced over at Xin, both of them at the edge of the dark hole. “Who gets to go first? Rock, paper, scissors?”
Xin shrugged. “You’re the bird. You should go through first.”
Nevarre shook his head with a wry grin. “I guess it doesn’t matter since you’re invisible anyway.”
As his queen, I could still see Xin clearly. I wasn’t sure if his gift would work on the crow queen or not, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt. If even the god of light hadn’t noticed the silent wolf padding along at my side as I’d neared the golden monstrosity of his throne in Heliopolis, then surely the bird wouldn’t either.
“How does this work, my queen?” Nevarre asked.
I stepped closer so I could touch the smooth wood bared by the deep fissure in the heart tree’s core. The trunk wasn’t a solid cylinder like a normal tree, but instead was a twisted, braided clump of thick rose stems fused together to form the central trunk. I carefully touched the pad of my index finger to the dark wood lining the crack. The inner wood didn’t have any thorns and was smooth, almost like it’d been sealed and polished.
Pressing my hand more firmly to the trunk, I merged my thoughts with the heart tree.
My blood still flowed through its limbs and deep into the soil. I could feel a heart beating, as if the tree was breathing, though I didn’t sense a specific personality. It took me a moment to realize that wasmyheartbeat thumping through the trunk.
I powered the tree. My blood fueled its roses and the lovely grotto. Naturally it beat in time with my heart.
The other trees encircled me, creating a resonance like the sweet, clear chime of crystal bells. They protected me and the nest, just as my Blood did. Their network of roots stretched out into the surrounding woods, listening and searching for any threat. I could feel the animals living and sleeping in my trees. The squirrels tucked up in their fuzzy tails. Birds fluffed into balls in their nests, beaks tucked under their wings. Even a bobcat just a few miles away, cozy in a small cave above the river.
I turned my attention inward, focusing on the dark hole before me. I felt a deep echo inside, as if it wasn’t just a hole in a normal-sized trunk, but a massive network of tunnels and passageways.
That word sparked something from my memory.
When I’d first gone to my mother’s house in New York City, I’d found the secluded room where she’d birthed me. She’d written her last words to me on those walls, and there’d been something about passageways.
“‘Walk the ways cloaked in Shadow seeing all,’” Nevarre whispered softly. “When you said Shadow, it resonated with my gift. That’s why I remember.”
I nodded, letting the thoughts flutter and swirl in my mind. There was something else. Something my father had said to me in the basement, the only time I’d ever seen or talked to him.“The paths of death that lead to life.”His deep voice whispered in my head from a great distance.“The ways are open to you, Daughter.”
The ways… through my tree? Or through the portal that I suspected lay in the steamy water of my grotto?
Or both?
There was only one way to find out. At least stepping into the tree didn’t seem as dangerous as when Xochitl and I had almost fallen through the water portal to Huitzilopochtli’s realm.
Besides, it couldn’t be that hard to control the passageways if young Xochitl had managed to find her way to me. Though I had a feeling our goddesses were watching out for the young princess and would have blocked anything that might have been too dangerous for a child to face.
I listened a moment, letting the tree feel my purpose. I wanted to go see the crow queen on her nest, wherever that was. Did I need to offer more blood to open the way? Or touch a secret pattern on the smooth wood? Or something even more mystical or arcane?
I didn’t feel moved to do any of those things. The tree seemed eager to have me inside, though perhaps that was merely my own quickening heartbeat. As I listened, I felt the sense of deep, endless passages firming to a single path. A small, round room carved like a bowl, though the entire chamber felt big enough to hold me and several Blood inside.
Intention. So much of my power depended on nothing more than my will to spark the magic, at least as long as I was willing to add blood to the mix if needed.
I gave a nod to Nevarre and he stepped into the gaping hole without hesitation. I should have been able to still see him. The trunk wasn’t that big. But when he called back, his voice sounded much further away than even a few steps. “All clear.”
Xin followed him, pausing partway inside to turn and offer me his hand. I took his fingers in mine and followed, watching him carefully. Rik’s big palm was warm on the small of my back, a steady promise that he was there. Close.
Xin never wavered or seemed to disappear, but after a step or two, we were both inside a dark place that stretched high enough for Rik behind me, though Llewellyn might have to duck. I trailed my free hand along the wall, though it didn’t feel like wood any longer. I couldn’t quite place it. Cool, but not cold and damp. Smooth, but not as smooth as the wood had been. It didn’t feel like rock and certainly wasn’t crumbly like dirt. I inhaled deeply, trying to use my other senses to help pinpoint what we were walking through.
But my nose was no help. I couldn’t smell rock or dirt or a hint of the forest or even the roses of the heart tree. The place seemed sterile. I strained to hear anything other than the scuffle of our shoes across the floor and my own heartbeat, but I couldn’t sense anything else. Some light might help, but before I could call a small fireball to my hand, we stepped into the rounded room I’d sensed.
It did look like a large wooden bowl with steep, tall sides. A nest of sticks and twigs had been built in the center of the floor. The crow I’d made friends with sat on the nest, her wings outstretched slightly to completely cover her eggs, so I had no idea how many she’d laid.
