Of Truth and Beasts

Wynn started off before even Ore-Locks or Chane could ask where they were headed. Shade fell into step, and at the last instant pulled ahead, pacing a dead line straight at the commander.

Althahk hesitated, stepping aside at the last instant. Wynn never looked back, though she heard Chane and Ore-Locks’s footfalls as they hurried to catch up.

All four of them headed down the wide lane into the brighter night lights. The stable might have seemed recognizable, but any semblance of familiarity ended as they walked into the “city” of trees.

Cleared stretches of paths slightly narrower than a common street were paved with packed gravel and natural stone slabs. Gardens and alcoves of flora flowed around made structures and up the tree trunks in tendril vines of glistening green leaves and night-closed flower buds. More earthbound buildings surrounded them than in the outer settlements. Their abundance was matched by tiers of higher structures above, all the way beyond sight in the canopy. In the street, there was a break in the trees above, like a matching road in the sky, where stars shone brightly beyond the haze of a nearly full moon.

Wynn slowed to barely a shuffle as she looked about. She had a sense of where to go from references on this city she’d found in the guild library. Somewhere on its northern side was another arch like the one through which they’d entered, but this exit would lead deeper into the forest.

“Where are you taking us?” Chane asked. “I thought we ... Wait!”

He grabbed her arm, pulling her aside beneath the shadow of a hanging building wrapped around one great tree. Its underfloor spread out above, shadowing them. The few people about were all on foot, but Wynn spotted what had startled Chane.

More patrollers—the Shé’ith—approached along the narrow street in a line of tall horses. They carried lances, but these had long and narrow steel tips. Their attire was the same as that of Althahk’s trio, and each bore another slightly curved sword in a shouldered sheath. A few had bows and quivers. There were many more of them—more than a dozen at quick count. Unlike the commander, the one in the lead bore a pearl white leaf brooch upon his sash.

“They’re all cavalry,” Chane noted. “Do you not find that strange ... for a tree-born race?”

“Yes,” Ore-Locks agreed quietly.

“Domin High-Tower once told me they value speed,” Wynn said, “being able to quickly traverse their forest or, rather, its surrounding lands.”

At mention of his brother, Ore-Locks’s expression darkened in silence.

Once the riders passed, Wynn took to the street again. She renewed her trek through this strange and beautiful forest-city, wondering how it would look by daylight. Some trees held multiple small structures up and around their trunks, like steps of giant, moss-roofed, shelf fungus with lantern light glowing through curtained windows.

What must it be like to live in a world that moved vertically as opposed to horizontally?

“Why do they live this way?” Chane asked, looking up.

Wynn shook her head. “Domin Tilswith couldn’t trace its history back far enough to learn how it began, let alone why. Just another ancient practice that became a way of life.”

But she still wondered. Even for elves, it seemed odd to her.

The an’Cróan’s founders had originally come from this land; thereby they shared the same forebears as the Lhoin’na. But those founders of the far-off Elven Territories had left amid the great war’s end. This way of life couldn’t have started until after that.

Shade crept out ahead, though she remained within Wynn’s reach. Again, although her home was a wild elven forest, these people were nothing like the more clan-based an’Cróan. And more than one passerby stumbled and froze, stunned as they watched a black majay-hì leading two humans and a dwarf. Wynn wondered if the majay-hì of this land remained barely more than living legend, even among the Lhoin’na.

A cluster of human merchants ambled out of a side path, all Numan, and one of them eyed Shade too long and almost tripped on the heels of his companions. Though he probably just wondered how a wolf—but too tall and lanky-legged—ended up as someone’s pet.

“Where are we going?” Chane asked.

“Out of the city,” Wynn answered, “and back into the forest.”

Again, he raised his eyebrow. “What could be out there that you have to see so urgently?”

“Aonnis Lhoin’n,” Wynn answered firmly. “First Glade.”

Chapter 10

Staff in one hand and a glowing cold lamp crystal held high in the other, Wynn tried to illuminate their way. Shade was out in front, leading them down a narrow path of flat stones set in the earth. But the walk to First Glade took longer than expected, as the forest grew more and more dense around her.

Endless masses of twisting ferns and vines meshed tightly between the trees on both sides. The intertwined canopy overhead blocked out the moon and stars.

“This is foolish,” Ore-Locks said from the rear. “We should have gone to the guild and taken rooms until morning.”