Chase placed a hand on her shoulder, and … she visibly calmed. Whoa. He definitely had a magic just like the Galinta. “They will never let you fall.” She let out a relieved sigh, until he added. “Not unless you wrong them.” Then he winked, and I relaxed somewhat.
Marsil, moving forward, wrapped an arm around Emma, offering comfort. She leaned into him and I heard her murmur, “I miss Lexen.”
“He’ll be fine,” Marsil reassured her. “He’s a Draygo and an overlord minor. That’s a tough combination to hurt.”
This seemed to mollify her, because she straightened, prepared to continue on. But my worry was back at the forefront of my mind.Daniel better be okay.
By the time we finally reached our destination, Emma looked more than a little frazzled. Her long auburn curls were frizzing; strain was evident around her mouth and eyes, and she had somehow managed to tear the sleeve of her white shirt. I, of course, looked fifty times worse than that. I was still wearing my school uniform covered in dried gunk from the tank.
Lately I’d been dirty more than I was clean, which made me uncomfortable because I generally showered twice a day. It would be great if there was some form of indoor plumbing in this village, along with food. Since we were up in the trees, though, that was probably a stretch.
The path ended with a series of step-like branches that deposited us to a lower level of the forest. We weren’t on the ground, and I was starting to wonder if there was a ground here. It appeared the trees just went down forever. This lower level had a “floor” of leaves, thick like a canopy, but apparently fine to walk on. Chase stepped right out onto it.
The area was huge, with lots of trunks dotted throughout, spiking up through the leafy floor. “Each one is a home,” Star whispered as we followed Chase.
I had no idea what she was talking about until I noticed the rounded door of the trunk nearest us. That’s what Marsil had stopped her from telling us before: Leights lived inside the trunks of trees.Amazing.They’d taken the concept of a “tree house” to an entirely new level.
Chase led us past dozens of dwellings like this, and the further we got from the stairs, the more villagers and huts emerged. Children ran by us, using branches to swing themselves around, playing and laughing. They all had long hair, mostly to their mid-back, but some even to their waist. Their skin colors ranged from the lightest tan to the darkest of ebony, all beautiful and exotic. The bone structure here alone would keep the modeling industry going for a thousand years.
They also appeared friendly and calm. Even the children. They played, but it was all smooth motions and graceful leaps through the trees. No screams or shrieks, just gentle laughter. Everything had a peaceful feel to it, and I just wanted to sit for a while and take it all in.
“I figure first you might like to wash up, and then food,” Chase said when we reached his side. “I’ll take you to the bathing areas.”
Bathing areas sounded a little too communal for me, but I was past the point of being picky. I needed to be clean. We passed another round area, which had stones and branches scattered about.
“We all eat together here, unless you prefer your own company,” Chase explained. “There are multiple villages like this spread out across the land of Leights. I visit between all of them with my parents. The overlord’s family is nomadic so that no village is lost or forgotten.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” I asked him.
Chase shook his head. “No, my mother was lucky to be able to carry me to full term. We have long gestations, almost fifteen months, and it’s hard on a woman’s body. My mother was already weakened from a sickness that ravaged her in her youth, so it was very worrying.”
“So sorry to hear that. I bet she’s glad to have had her one child, though.”
Marsil chuckled. “I always thought my mother doted on me until I met Chase’s. He’s her golden child and can do no wrong.”
Chase shrugged, not looking at all embarrassed to be called out on his close relationship to his parents. He loved his family, that much was clear. He owned it with pride.
Beyond the eating area, we came across another set of stairs. These led down to a large platform beside a round pool.A pool in the trees?What sort of crazy was this?
The water was so clear that I could see the bottom. It looked like a smooth wooden bowl, made up from half a huge tree trunk. “This is provided by the Galinta,” Chase told us. “They form the pool, and the water which falls in to it.”
It was about the size of an Olympic pool, but round. “Not much privacy,” Emma said with a dry laugh. “I personally keep my lady parts out of the public eye, for multiple reasons.”
“Yes, let’s not forget that her mate turns into a dragon,” Star said with a choked laugh-grimace.
I chuckled at the mental images of Lexen sprouting claws and shooting flames at any dudes caught staring at naked-Emma. It felt good to laugh. I’d been doing a lot of crying lately, so some happy relief was exactly what I needed. I did sober up when I remembered that Daniel was out doing God knows what, going up against Laous. He’d better be okay. I refused to consider any other possibility.
I took a step closer to the water while Chase attempted to explain how this bathing thing worked. “The legreto here has extra-special properties. It will hide whatever you want hidden. You’ll see once you go in. Use those trunks there to remove your clothes and then once you’re in, you’ll understand.”
He pointed toward a row of six trunks, which had a veil of leaves across the front of them. I stepped over with Emma; she kept her eyes narrowed suspiciously on the water behind us.
The leafy part of the tree moved as soon as we were in front of the trunk. Behind it was a hollow space, about the size of a decent dressing room in a department store. When I stepped inside, the leaves closed off behind me. There was a bench running the full length of the trunk, so I quickly pulled off my clothes, grimacing as they stuck to me where I was still caked in goo. Dropping them in a pile, I turned around, prepared to step out in all of my naked glory. Chase might think the water was going to hide me, but we still had to walk from this trunk to get into the legreto. Just as I took a step forward, the floor groaned under me, then it opened right up. With a shriek, I dropped down.
14
As my feet hit the water, I managed to suck in one lungful of air before I went under. I wasn’t a strong swimmer. We’d never lived anywhere with a pool, and my mom didn’t care enough about me drowning to get lessons, so the most I got to do was splash at the beach when we lived near it.
It took me a beat, but I finally figured out that I was in some sort of tube … a slide maybe. Super cool except I couldn’t breathe under water, so it was going to get a lot less fun in a few seconds. My feet hit a flimsy barrier, pushing it to the side, and then with a whoosh I was out in the open water. I landed against the smooth wooden base. Pushing hard off the bottom, I broke the top of the water, gasping in air.
