Chapter 28 - A living myth.
Aren and the others stood in silence around Sir William's remains and did not take their eyes off the ground.
Under the remains a huge bear's pawprint had been stamped deep into the earth, with the broken armor lying inside it, pressed down into the soil, and the sight of it alone sent a chill through every one of them.
"I did wish, in the heat of it, that somebody would finally do for that idiot... but this..." Askir said.
Without raising his head, Arswald glanced at Elen, who stood frozen with horror.
"Pull yourselves together. We already knew he was here, and that's exactly why we need to hurry," he said.
Arswald turned and waved the others after him, though Armund stayed where he was.
"And we know the depths of the forest are his territory," Armund said.
Arswald froze mid-step and turned slowly to Armund, who did not look away and went on in the same tone.
"We can't shut our eyes to the fact that Ursus is most likely somewhere out there right now, and I'm as good as certain he'll find us before we find him."
Arswald let a few moments pass, keeping his eyes on him.
"And what are you proposing?"
"Don't you think we were too hasty in that decision? Heading not for the way out of the forest but for the Great Tree... only because you went on an assumption? We don't even know what's really going on. Maybe we're not surrounded any more, and this is our chance to get out of here."
"You saw it yourself through that first week, when we were scouting the terrain the whole time — the closer we came to the inner bound and the way out, the more thickly the creatures massed," Elen said.
"And even so, William and Aren somehow managed to get through them and reach this place," Armund answered.
"And besides, the whole way here I couldn't shake the thought that we'd taken this theory on faith. Aren reaches the tree and our problem with the trap sorts itself out then and there. What if we do everything we're supposed to, and then we get to the bound and nothing has changed? And that's leaving aside how dangerous it is to go near the Great Tree, which the legends say is exactly what Ursus guards. That's certain death," he added.
At his words they all dropped their eyes and sank into thought, until Aren decided to answer.
"You're right... in that case... I'll go alone."
Elen threw him a sharp, alarmed look, while Arswald went on holding his gaze.
"Nobody made you say it. Are you sure you're ready to part with your life?" Arswald asked.
"No, I'm not ready. But going on living in the dark, knowing I had let a chance like that go by, risk or no risk... sounds worse to me than death."
Arswald studied Aren's face for a few moments more, then let out a slow breath.
"In that case, raise your hand — those who want to head for the way out, and then those who want the Great Tree."
Armund, Askir, Ray and Arswald himself raised their hands, and then the whole group turned to Elen.
He stood motionless and looked at the ground while his fingers slowly closed into a fist and his eyelids dropped.
He shut his eyes, and memories of the slaughter he had lived through flashed across his mind — bodies in the branches, the crack of armor being torn open, and screams that cut off when Ursus threw men down, crushed them and ripped plate apart.
The familiar fear closed around his chest again, but over it Selma's face rose out of his memory, and then the face of a man with a thick beard looking at him with a warm smile. His father's face.
"I can already see how strong you're going to be, Elen. You'll be a great warrior for certain, greater than me even. You're my... strongest one... my little hero," his father said.
Elen opened his eyes and looked at Arswald with resolve.
"Elen, you can't be seri—" Askir began.
"I'm going with him," Elen cut in.
Askir broke off, and Arswald fixed Elen with a stern stare for a few moments more, then nodded slowly.
"In that case it's settled."
He came over to Aren and put a hand on his shoulder.
"You made this decision yourself, so be careful. You have one single fight behind you and a few hours of training, but seeing how easily you learn, I think you'll be able to adapt to danger. All the same, remember: don't overestimate yourself."
Aren nodded, and Arswald turned to Elen for a moment.
"Don't be a burden to him."
A crooked grin appeared on Elen's face.
"Piss off."
Arswald grinned back, and the group split up.
Aren and Elen set off into the depths of the forest toward the distant Great Tree, while Arswald and the rest headed north in the hope of finally getting out of the forest.
Behind the high walls of Ockhaven, meanwhile, the usual daytime lull held, and only the distant footsteps of the guard broke the silence of the castle corridors now and then.
Three walls of the Hand's study were taken up by bookshelves from floor to ceiling, while the fourth was shared by a narrow window and a heavy oak door.
Ulrich stood at one of the shelves and ran his eyes slowly along the spines, then chose a book, opened it and began to read, turning the pages without hurry.
A few quiet knocks at the door made him stop.
"Come in."
When the door opened, Aurey came into the study, and Ulrich half turned slowly toward him.
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"Learned anything?"
"Only a small part. They speak mostly in their own language."
Ulrich breathed out through his nose.
"Mm."
Aurey kept his silence and was in no hurry to break it, until Ulrich spoke again.
"The Queen went into the forest more than a day ago now, and there's been no word from her."
"I think I need to go to her," Aurey answered.
"No. You have a task here that matters just as much."
Aurey said nothing, and Ulrich still did not look up from the book.
"The Aisengarders are clearly not here for diplomatic purposes alone, and the Queen understands that," he said.
"Then why don't we simply throw them out of the country?"
Ulrich answered with a slight smile without lifting his eyes from the page.
"We don't want to give anyone grounds for needless conflict or tension, since peace in Waldruhm comes first, for us and for our Queen. Watching and studying them is another matter. That will give us far more opportunity and far more information."
Aurey said nothing while the pages went on turning, until Ulrich finally tipped the book slightly in his direction.
"Do you know what this is?"
"A book."
"It isn't just a book, it's the archivists' records. It speaks of Ursus as well, and of what was happening to the forest and the kingdom several decades ago."
"I thought the records on Ursus were open only to the Forest Watch."
"They are. This book only sets out the same legends and myths known both to the Green Order and to the common people..."
Ulrich laid the book on the table and pointed at an image of Ursus bowing before the Great Tree.
"Look at this. In the legends Ursus is a beast-god, the absolute guardian of the forest, who keeps watch over its harmony and its balance. But this book says that Ursus is not the chief power."
Aurey glanced at Ulrich, then came slowly to the table and bent over the image.
"Even before the time of the first Borns, when Waldruhm did not exist as a single kingdom, ancient peoples said that Ursus was only the loyal servant of a still greater power. Of a true deity. And given the way those legends have come down to us..."
Ulrich put a finger on the image of the Great Tree.
"There's probably a reason the name has come down to us as the 'Great' Tree."
Aurey slowly raised his eyes to him.
"What are you getting at?"
Ulrich let out a breath and leaned over the book again.
"That there's a great deal we still don't know about what power lives in this forest, and in spite of that we rule these lands, certain of our absolute authority. And we have no idea at all what may be living in there... and who knows, perhaps it's for that presumption that we are only now coming to learn who truly rules these lands."
Aurey frowned as it came home to him that the Queen he was meant to protect had gone into the Great Forest.
"Then that adds one more solid reason to go there and protect the Queen."
"She'll manage without you," Ulrich answered without a pause.
Aurey looked at him with a touch of indignation, and Ulrich went on.
"You know perfectly well what she is, and what she was. And you know you became her sword only by our traditions, and because King Edmund ordered it so before his death. What she needs now is not protection for herself but protection for the kingdom. That's why you and I are here. While she deals with the Great Forest, our task is to watch and to keep trouble from starting here, given the powerful and dangerous guests now staying in this castle. You must understand that."
Aurey's jaw tightened and he dropped his eyes, then raised his head and gave a short nod.
"The Aisengarders were clearly interested in Aren after the bout at the tournament, so it's entirely possible his abduction matters just as much to them. Your watch on Schtance on the day the Queen left confirms it. So your task now is to keep watching, and if it comes to danger, to stop the Aisengarders getting what they need," Ulrich added.
Aurey paused briefly and went over what he had heard.
"Understood."
Ulrich nodded and returned to the pages, and Aurey turned and went out, pulling the heavy door quietly shut behind him.
At the same time the Great Forest closed around Aren and Elen in ever thicker shadow, while the roots of the colossal trees forced them to step over and vault one obstacle after another.
They talked of other things, trying to take their minds off the mounting tension.
"So Leo finally settled on defensive weapons," Elen said.
Aren glanced back over his shoulder without stopping.
"He was working on other kinds of weapon as well?"
A grin came through in Elen's voice.
"Oh yes. Once, when he was in Ockhaven, he knocked together another of his 'brilliant' throwing daggers, this one on a cable. The idea was that with an ordinary knife you'd have to go and fetch it or give it up altogether, while with his device the blade would come back on its own along a thin cable."
"Wow, and did it work?" Aren asked.
Elen barely held back his laughter, stopped and put a hand against a tree trunk.
"While he was trying to show how the blade loaded — it had jammed on him for some reason — the mechanism went off by accident, and the blade went straight into our neighbor's ass... We ran from him all the way to the eastern district."
Aren held out only a few moments before he started laughing along with Elen.
"Luckily my mother calmed him down fast, but Leo and I caught it as well... though that wasn't entirely fair, since I was only watching."
Aren let out a breath and dropped his eyes to the ground with a smile.
"Yes, for all the trouble he caused, Leo always knew how to lift the mood... I think I've only seen him without a smile a few times..." he said.
Elen went past him with a smile and answered on the move.
"Well, that's the Greenfields for you. Mia, mind, is mostly shy and quiet, and Elara is something in between."
Aren grinned knowingly and was already opening his mouth to answer.
"Yes, that's ri—"
The words broke off when a rushing blow from above drove the air around Aren into a hard wave and tore him upward, so that the ground dropped far below in a single instant.
Through the rising roar of the wind Elen's voice came up from below.
"AREN!!!"
The next moment Aren opened his eyes and found himself held in the huge foot of a flying creature whose body shimmered with iridescent magical energy.
As they rose almost clear of the treetops, Aren knew things were bad and reached for the sword at his belt, but the bird's foot had the scabbard pinned, and it took a long hard pull to get the blade clear.
When the sword finally came free of the scabbard, the momentum threw his arm up and almost knocked the weapon out of his hand, though Aren managed to keep hold of the hilt.
DAMN IT, we're too high! If I try to get free now I'll just smash into the ground!... Damn... think... think...
Only the crowns of the giant trees swept past on every side, and Aren looked at the foot holding him and tried to find any way out at all. He measured the distance to the nearest trunks, and a mad idea came into his head, though he had nothing else left.
"To hell with it!" he cried.
Aren drove the sword into the bird's foot, and its furious cry carried over the forest. The foot opened and he swung down feet-first, holding on to the hilt of the blade lodged deep in it.
The creature wrenched itself into sharp turns while he held the hilt and waited for the momentum to swing him toward the nearest trunk.
At the right instant he tore the sword back, cut a piece off the foot and was flung away toward the tree. But a beat of the creature's wing knocked the sword out of his hand in mid-air, and there was nothing left to hook into the trunk with.
FUCK!
Aren hit the bark and slid down it with a scraping noise, and stopped halfway up.
Breathing hard and looking down, he slowly took in that he was alive, and then he raised his eyes. Blue energy covered both his arms to the elbow and stood out in sharp curved claws around his fingers.
Higher up the trunk ten long strips of bark had been torn away.
Aren waited until his heartbeat settled a little, then moved his hands carefully and worked his way down.
Once he was down, Aren looked at his hands and watched the energy claws, still shaped like a Cortex's, dissolve slowly into the air.
Not far off lay the sword and the severed part of the bird's foot, both dropped in his jump to the tree.
Aren came slowly over, picked up the weapon, glanced at the piece of foot and raised his head to the thick leaves that shut out the sunlight.
A shout behind him brought him around to Elen, coming through the trees at a dead run and gasping for air.
"AR-EN!"
Elen reached him and braced his hands on his knees, while Aren came over and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, are you all right?"
Elen forced the answer out and tried to get his breath back.
"I thought... you were... done for."
Elen breathed out, dropped to the ground and kept trying to get his wind back, while Aren sat down beside him on a root that rose from the soil.
"For a moment I thought so too... what the hell was that?" Aren asked.
"That was... an Ethereal Kestrel."
"Another magical predator?"
Elen nodded, a little more himself by now.
"But why is it here?... They only live up near the mountain ranges... They never hunt in this part of the world," Elen said.
Aren thought for a moment about the direction of its flight.
"A mountain range... but it was flying the other way... east... and there are no mountain ranges there..." Aren said.
A few seconds later the crack of breaking branches cut through the quiet, and a tremor passed under their feet.
Aren and Elen sprang up and turned to the stretch of forest where the trees stood closer and the shadows grew deeper.
A cold wind blew straight into their faces. Then the sounds of heavy footfalls reached them, growing louder.
Horror and fear locked both of them in place, and only Elen knew the feeling at once, while Aren could not make his body move.
One of the huge paws struck the ground in front of them.
They raised their heads slowly and followed with their eyes up the thick-furred legs, the massive chest and the powerful neck, until they saw the muzzle of a giant bear.
Ursus looked down at them, and two saber-shaped fangs jutted from its jaws.
Then it rose onto its hind legs, spread all six limbs, stood almost half the height of the giant trees and let out a deafening and menacing roar that rolled out over the forest and sent up gusts of wind.