Page 50 of Into the West

The old mage sighed. “And we hope that luck is with us and Jonaton and his band find a ley-line on the other side of that thing so we don’t have to worry about it.”

The horses and mules did not like that forest, and neither did Bay. Bay wouldn’t even set foot on the bank; he planted himself on the top of the women’s barge with his ears and tail down, whining, and refused to move.

Delia did not blame the mastiff in the least. She didn’t have anything like a Healer’s Empathy, but the nearer she got to those tree-things, the more she felt a sort of . . . dull, distant, background emotion. Like rage, if rage had been smothered and sleeping for centuries until it had dulled down to a sort of ambience, barely there unless you looked for it.

But that ambience of rage did not change when the mages on Kordas’s end did their scrying. And it didn’t change when they entered the forest boundaries. So after unconsciously holding her breath until she suddenly realized she was running out of air, Delia clambered up onto the roof of the barge with Bay and sat down. The dog immediately put his head in her lap, whimpering just barely loud enough for her to hear.

The horses and mules not being ridden had all been put into harness and attached to the barges. With all of them pulling, the pace had gone from an amble to a fast walk, and no one had needed to urge them into a faster pace. Even unflappable Tight Squeeze had his ears back, his tail twitching, and leaned hard into his harness, trying to increase his speed. Clearly, they could not stand to be in this place a moment longer than they were forced to be.

Delia looked at Amethyst, who stood in the prow of her barge with head cocked to one side, as if she was listening.

“What are you sensing, Amethyst?” she called softly, as if too much noise was dangerous.

“Anger, but distant, and sleeping,” the Doll replied immediately. “But I do not think it would be wise for you to collect even fallen wood from this place. I feel as if . . . as if . . . as if these trees would know if you did, and if we burned or broke any of it, they would know that, too.”

“What is it?” she begged.

“It seems vaguely familiar, but vastly changed. Changed so much I cannot recognize what it once was. Something I might have recognized immediately before that change took place.” Amethyst shook her head. “That is all I can say for now. We need to be gone from here.”

Thank you for the obvious, Delia thought, her own temper irritated by the anger all around her and inescapable. But she didn’t snap at Amethyst or let it show. The Doll was doing her best, had been doing her best, and it was not fair to get testy with her.

Oh, but she wanted to be on the other side of this thing!

As noon approached, she decided to see if Sai wanted help with getting food to everyone. Obviously they were not going to stop to cook, but if he made up some sort of thing, she could distribute it for him.

She found him in the kitchen in the women’s barge contemplating leftover cold goose and cheese. “I wish I’d thought to make up some more flatbreads,” he said, as her footsteps told him of her approach.

“They’re nasty and tough when they are cold,” she reminded him. “What about wrapping up packets of meat and cheese in cabbage leaves? We’ve got them hanging from the roof of the storage barge.”

The storage barge had that same spell on it that they’d used back at the manor, to keep things preserved for far longer than they had any right to be. That was where the precious fat was stored, including some even more precious butter, some few eggs, and a great many vegetables as well as the grains for humans and animals. Everyone knew about winter-sickness, of course, and a very high priority had been placed on keeping things like cabbages sound enough to eat all winter. Sai perked up at that. “That’s an excellent idea. Go bring me one.”

Under any other circumstances, she would have chided him for lack of politeness, but if she was feeling under strain, it was probably worse for a mage.

So she ran off to the storage barge, and came back with a head of cabbage she judged just big enough to supply leaves for wraps and have enough left over to add to tonight’s soup.

Oh, how I hope we will actually be out of this place before sundown so we can get that soup!

In mere moments, she found herself running among the barges, passing out cabbage-wrapped packets of minced goose and cheese all held together with mustard and flavored with a touch of salt. Sai had boiled water to blanch the leaves; they were still crispy, but more flexible. No one made any complaints, and it tasted just fine, if a bit out of the ordinary, to Delia, who finally collected her own wrap after delivering them to everyone else.

Then, with nothing more to do, she sat back down with poor Bey, hand-fed him bits of goose and cheese sent by Sai, and stared at the forest.

The dragonfly things were pretty. But—they shouldn’t be alive. It was much, much too cold for insects to be alive.

And that was when she realized that she wasn’t cold. In fact, she felt a little warm. The air seemed stuffy, and smelled musty, like a room that had been closed up in the heat for a long time. Experimenting, she slid down off the roof of the barge to the river side of the walkway, and crouched down. It was definitely colder, much colder. And walking around to the land side, there was no doubt that warmth radiated off of the forest.

Were there shadows under those trees in the distance? Were they moving?

She looked sharply away, and then back, saw no change in the shadows, and scolded herself for being too jumpy.

But if the forest is warm, warm enough for dragonflies to live, why is it going into winter sleep? Or have we made a mistake there? What if it isn’t winter sleep, just . . . sleep?

Wouldn’t that mean it could be a lot easier to wake it up?

“The scouts are on the other side of the forest, with no incident,” Rose announced, in late afternoon. Kordas heaved a sigh of relief.

“Have they found a safe place to camp?” he asked the Doll.

“Yes, and they are going to mark it for the rest, because it is particularly defensible.” Rose paused. “Would you like me to describe the strange forest for you, as they experienced it?”