Eva shrugged dismissively. "Rumors are rumors. At any point half a dozen of them are flying around. You can't trust them."
"I've seen the way the two of them act around you. He respects you. It's something I've always wanted."
And never managed to get, went unsaid.
"How does this bet play into that?" she asked.
He lifted one shoulder, his fingers tapping his leg. "Bragging rights."
She observed him. Could she trust him?
"I won't help you get one of the Kyren as a pet," Eva warned. She didn't think she could even if she wanted to—and she didn't want.
"That's fine. I thought about what you said before and you were right." His smile was apologetic and regretful.
The expression made him seem as young as he really was. Without the normal bad temper, he looked like an earnest youth ready and willing to learn.
Eva sighed before moving down the path.
"I doubt these are natural," she said finally.
How could they be? Nothing in nature grew this way. At least nothing she'd ever heard of. This was the Highlands, though. Anything was possible.
She circled one shaped in the form of a woman, wind catching her skirt so it billowed out behind her, the brown and blond branches of her hair following suit.
The finest threads of metal glinted deep in the tangle of branches.
"Is this metal?" Eva asked.
If so, it was spun finer than anything she'd ever seen. As thin as a strand of hair, it wound around and through the branches, almost as if it was holding them together. It was part of them, as integral as the wood the branches were made up of.
"What are you talking about?" Jason stepped closer, trying to see what she did.
He pushed aside one of the branches for a better look. "You're right. It is metal. How did they create this? It should be impossible."
His face was astonished as he stepped back.
Eva looked over her shoulder at the rest of the wood people. Some were greener than the one in front of her, small vines and flowers sprouting from them. Others in the more shaded parts of the walled-off courtyard had moss growing on them and a skin tone closer to stone.
"Our blacksmiths would never be able to make something that fine." Jason's expression was troubled as he regarded the rest.
The wood people, fifteen in all, watched with unseeing eyes as Eva moved among them. She stopped by one, a girl on the cusp of womanhood, her figure slight. Her hair had flowers growing in it. Pink, the like Eva had never seen before.
Wonderingly, Eva reached out and brushed the flower's petal. How could metal and plant be one?
Impossible, just like so many other things she'd seen on this journey. She felt like she'd used that word too many times, but the impossible never got any easier to swallow.
She was surprised at the warmth of the branches making up the body—almost like they were a person’s flesh.
The girl's head shifted, wood branches creaking in a small moan.
Eva stepped back.
A splintering sound reached her, like roots being yanked out of the ground.
Jason's face twisted in horror as he lurched forward. "Watch out."
Eva whirled to find another of the wood figures reaching for her. Jason grabbed her arm and yanked her out of reach.
