Dari smiled. “Then ‘tis settled.”
Something must have caught the king’s peripheral vision for he did a double-take. “Is that the foreign tree you spoke of?”
The princess followed his stare. Her glowing gaze came to a halt when it reached the tree they had no name for yet. “Aye, my king. ‘Tis odd, is it not?”
The black tree with silver leaves stood approximately thirteenYeti-feethigh. Sharp red thorns sprouted from each leaf stem, giving it a lovely but deadly appeal. There was a bewitching beauty about the thing, yet always did Dari hesitate to touch it. Leastways, the king did not share in her reservations for he immediately reached out a hand to it.
“’Tis made of ice,” King Elian muttered, perplexed. “The leaves are silver-ice.”
“’Tis odd, that.” Leastways, the icy leaves explained why the atmosphere around the tree remained so cold despite the temperate weather. “Be careful of its—”
The king muttered an expletive as he snatched back his now bleeding finger. The thing had pricked him quite hard.
“—thorns,” Dari finished.
King Elian allowed some blood from his cut to trickle onto the stem of one leaf. Dari blinked when the blood disappeared. ‘Twas as though the tree had… well… consumed the blood? What in the sands?!
The king raised his cut finger to his lips and suckled it until the bleeding stopped. “I think mayhap we should steer clear of that tree,” he mused. “The thing has a vicious bite.”
“Mayhap we should destroy that tree,” the princess said in all sincerity. Something about the thing wasn’t sitting quite right with her. Leastways, the hairs at the nape of her neck were standing up. “Chop it up and set it afire.”
“Bah! Do not concern yourself with it. ‘Tis but a wee gash.” He offered her his arm once more. “Shall we head back?”
Dari stared at the tree for a prolonged moment. She shivered, then quickly shrugged off the bizarre feeling. “Aye, my king.”
* * * * *
“Everything started to change after that,” Dari said into the void. “Leastways, King Elian afore the prick to his finger was not the same warlord as King Elian after it.”
“The change came that fast?” Klykka asked.
“Not o’er night mayhap,” Dari countered, “but aye, everything started to change quite rapidly after the tree drank of his blood.”
“She told me King Elian grew quick-tempered almost immediately,” Kari added. She panted, again underscoring how tiring it was for her to speak outside the void whilst linking Dari into it. “By the evening meal that same day no less.”
“Dari, you are certain that tree caused this change?”
“There is no other explanation.” The princess sighed. “’Tis the tree for a certainty. What is not so clear to me is how an evil came to be in that tree from the first nor how said evil came to dwell inside the king.”
“Mayhap the drinking of the king’s blood didn’t change him. Leastways, the thorn mayhap released something into his blood that did.”
“I-I hadn’t thought of that,” Dari admitted. “Though looking back that does make sense.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Does it even matter?” the princess lashed out, surprising Kari and Klykka. “I do not mean to be o’erly harsh,” she said, sounding tired, “but ‘tis that bedamned tree for a certainty! And now that we know Khan-Gor is real and not merely the spinning of some dreamer’s dream…”
“…You feel completely sure the tree comes from this so-called Planet of the Predators,” Kari finished.
“So-called?” Dari asked impatiently. “Right afore we enteredhyatzidid you not see from the viewing windows with thine own eyes that the ice planet all and sundry thought to be a fable is real?”
“Yes, yes! Calm down, sweetheart.”
Dari closed her eyes briefly whilst she took a steadying breath. “My apologies to you both, Klykka and Kari. I just fear that Bazi will wake up the soonest and mayhap overhear me speaking of the tree. The boy-child has been put through enough.”
“’Tis sorry I am, sweetling. Yet the more information you provide me the more I can help you. I shall take all I glean from the void to the Chief High Mystik herself. She will know what to do for she is wise in all things.”
“I’m trying,” Dari murmured. “I’m just so frightened for Kari and Bazi to be on this mission with me.” She softly shook her head. “And what of Gio? He believes his sire is still his sire. Mayhap Elian will kill him unawares.”
