To Scale the Emerald Mountain (The Willowbane Saga #1)

3. CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

W e move as quickly as we can without drawing overt attention.

Luckily, all is quiet in the lush forest again. My feet ache—thorns, sticks, and brambles scattered across the mountain floor sticking into my feet like a beaten and bloody pincushion.

I really need shoes. And real clothes.

My flimsy shift hadn’t bothered me much when I was on my own, in the heat of summer it’s welcomingly breathable. Now that I’m not alone, I’m very aware of how revealing it is. Locane doesn’t seem to notice, or at least has the decency to not mention it. I walk with my arms hugged over my chest, trying to hide what I can.

He turns his head and says over his shoulder, “So, who are you running from?”

“What makes you think I’m running?”

Locane smiles unkindly. “Your lack of shoes and proper clothing for travel are very telling.”

I sigh. “That’s fair. I don’t know. All I know is I was in a dungeon cell, and I made a point to escape that cell and get as far away from that place as I could.”

He gives me a searching, unreadable look. “You haven’t a clue why you were in a dungeon?” I shake my head as he watches me skeptically. “How did you escape? ”

“I don’t know. I just had this instinct to go. And everything I tried worked.” I shrug, deciding to leave out the voice telling me what to do. “What about you? What’s your story?”

“Not really much to tell,” Locane says vaguely.

I scowl. “I may not have given you much, but I gave you something. You don’t appear to be on the run.”

“No, not on the run.”

“What are you doing in the middle of a mountain forest?” I implore.

“I am on my way home.”

“And why did you decide to help me? With your abilities, you could have gotten yourself out of danger from those beasts,” I point out, curiosity over his answer gripping me.

Locane gives me a blank look and says, “I saw a barefoot, nearly naked girl running from kyniors who could and would have ripped her to shreds. I’m not a monster.”

“Well, the beasts have moved on. Why insist on not parting ways this morning after there was no longer a threat?”

“You are still barefoot and nearly naked. And you seem to be struggling with knowing anything about yourself. I get the feeling you’re not that good of a liar.”

He sure is making something that should be a good thing sound like an insult. With every exchange, my dislike for my new companion grows. I say nothing and give him a skeptical glance.

“Again, I am not a monster. I will see you through to procure proper travel attire and will gladly send you on your way.”

“You keep telling me you’re not a monster, but you have been awfully rude to me. You treat me as if we know each other, and I’ve personally wronged you.”

He rolls his eyes, releasing an audible exhale. “We don’t know each other. Although I am not going to stand by and watch a girl die or struggle along, that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about the unwanted company that I did not ask for.”

“You keep calling me a girl. I’m not a girl, Locane.”

“Oh? Well then what are you?”

“Obviously, I am a woman!” I indignantly gesture to myself, head to toe.

“I would not say that’s obvious. You still look and act quite childlike.”

My mouth opens comically wide in outrage.

“Perhaps we walk in silence for a while, yes?” He offers me a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.

And we do just that for several hours.

As I shuffle over ancient grass, lichen covered logs, and the occasional small stream of running water, I spend the rest of my mental energy the same way I had in the long days before I came across Locane, trying to piece together my life.

So far, I’ve gotten nowhere with any information about myself, the effort making tiredness creep in. Dragging my feet over the terrain, I begin to feel strange. Cold sweat dots my lip and a drip of blood falls from my nose. It’s as if my mind has been thrown into a vortex; my vision and thoughts blurring together.

The forest around me distorts and morphs to a new setting, colors bleeding together and combining—my world becoming nothing but a painter’s palette, creating something new.

Suddenly I am somewhere else, speaking with another woman’s voice, and seeing through her eyes.

“At the dawn of time, our loving Mother—Ellhora—created this world. In the days of origin, there was but one singular land mass, where Ellhora lived with her people, and they named this lovely planet after her.”

I pause my lesson to scan the faces of eager young ladies from behind my lectern, enraptured by our history.

“Back in those times, there were only humans happy to have their short existence and worship their Mother who still walked the lands with her children. Then came along three gods who thought what she had built was so beautiful, they wanted a piece for themselves. The Mother was not happy about these gods coming to claim her creation. They demanded she release the confines of her magic from where it was housed in the Gleisheon Territory of the Mother Continent; to release the Mother’s power from where it lived in the willowbane tree. The gods wished to give the Mother’s magic to the people.

“But her people had lived in such happiness and peace. She worried that the gift the gods offered was not a gift at all, but a curse. The Mother feared that people with different magical abilities would tip her perfectly maintained scales of balance; that power struggles would arise; that her people of love and peace would turn against each other.”

The scratch of quills taking notes whispers through the air, intertwining with the echoes of my impassioned retelling. Buzzing curiosity charges the airy classroom.

“The Mother tried to respectfully decline these three gods. Asked them with kindness to please leave this world and let her people continue their peaceful existence. But where the Mother was made of love and light and peace, these gods were made of hate and greed and darkness .

“And through the Mother’s refusal to these foreign gods’ demands, the Original War began.

“The angered gods retaliated against the Mother. They stole from the sacred willowbane tree, cursing it to unleash unnatural powers on the world before then killing it. The gods spread hateful lies about the Mother’s inability to provide for her people. They poisoned and destroyed the land, denying sustenance to the people of this planet in an effort to sway the masses to their cause.”

I begin slowly pacing back and forth across my raised platform, my skirts swishing around my ankles with each pass.

“The darkness and greed that the Mother tried to spare her people from took root despite her attempts to keep their world pure. Many of her people gladly joined the armies of the gods. They wanted the gods’ stolen magic and greedily longed for the promises that dripped in their ears like honey from silver tongued beings.

“And for years death and destruction reigned.

“In a final desperate attempt to stop the decimation of everything she created and loved, the Mother made a choice. She offered the idea of a peace treaty with the gods and their armies. After much deliberation, a meeting location was agreed upon in what is now Quinndohs.”

Pausing my pacing, I point my wooden stick at a map on the blackboard; a map of the two continents when they were still connected and whole. The point of the stick rests just past the land bridge on what is now the Kingdoms of the Continent .

“Ellhora had a plan. The gods and most of their armies gathered on the western portion of her beautiful lands. In a brief meeting between the Mother and the gods, she struck a deal with them. She agreed for them to stay in her world with their armies and magic, both stolen from her. In return, the gods were to leave what was left of her people in peace.”

I pause and tap the stick across my palm twice.

“Do any of you know what happened next?” I ask expectantly and smile with pride when most hands in the class rise. “Yes,” I say, pointing at a young lady towards the back of the class.

“The Mother went to the border of the city of Halliveen and used her power to disconnect the land bridge leading into what is now the Kingdom of Quinndohs,” her high voice tells me assuredly.

Pulling down an updated map to cover the one previously shown, I nod in approval. The point of my stick lands in the darkened section of ocean labeled The Great Trench, connecting what is now the Bay of Quinndohs and the Ruby Shore peninsula of Halliveen, capital city of the Mellivense Territory.

“Yes, she did. Creating two separate continents from what was previously one. After everything that had transpired, the Mother didn’t trust the gods to keep to the terms of the deal. And so, in an act of desperation to keep her people safe, she dug her hands into the earth. Using her great power, she called to the sky, bringing down a bolt of lightning. She called to the ground beneath her—straight to the core of her planet. Recognizing its creator, the earth gave freely to her command, offering a shot of molten liquid to the surface .

“Ellhora’s power of earth and sky met, creating a fissure running from one shore to the other. A large chasm opened where, just moments ago, her hands dug into the ground. The massive landmass moved as she held her arms aloft, as if physically pushing it away.”

Shaking my head softly, I make a tsking noise.

“But as the land mass drifted away from her, the Mother saw those three gods at the edge of where the chasm began and wondered if she had made a mistake. She ignored her apprehension, hoping that—for now—maybe her people could rebuild and get back to some semblance of a peaceful existence.”