The sentiment didn’t help.
Naelin burst out the door and drew in a breath of night air. It tasted sour as she breathed in the smoke from the chimneys of the village all around. The sun had set, and dusk shrouded the trees in shadows. Lights from the other houses glowed warm amber. Firemoss twinkled from the bridges and ladders.
Naelin heard the door open and shut behind her. “I know I was rude. It’s just . . . They’re waiting for me. I want to be there already.”
“I promised Daleina I’d bring Arin home,” Ven said. “Given all that’s going on, she felt it was the safest place for her sister.”
“She’ll be angry at being left behind.” She thought of how gleefully Arin had made the potion-laced charms—this felt like a betrayal after how kind the girl had been to Naelin.
“Angry is better than dead,” Ven said. “Young people should have their childhoods and not be asked to save the world. We should at least be able to spare them that.” He was frowning, and she wondered if he was thinking of the heirs who’d died over the years. He’d been a part of training those young people to risk themselves—she hadn’t realized he ever felt guilt over that. “Besides, her parents will keep her from noticing when we leave. I’m planning on being miles away when she figures out we’re gone.”
Naelin snorted. “The big, strong champion afraid of a child’s temper tantrum?”
“Terrified,” he agreed. “But more terrified of what would happen to her if Merecot decided to use her for revenge or leverage. Here she’ll be protected against anything Merecot tries to do. In Semo . . . It’s not right to take a child into such obvious danger.”
“Like I took mine,” Naelin said.
“That’s not what I meant!” Ven said. “It’s not your fault.”
Of course it is! “I became queen. I made them targets. If I hadn’t done that, Merecot never would have taken them. We’d all be safe at home.”
“You might as well blame me, then. If I hadn’t found you and forced you to use your powers, you’d still be in East Everdale with Erian and Llor and Renet.”
She felt the spirits around her, feeling her guilt and impatience, and walled her thoughts off as the headmistress had taught her. The last thing she wanted to do was draw spirits to Arin’s home. That would be the worst way to repay this family for their hospitality.
“I think my mother and sister will like you,” Ven said.
Naelin glanced at him. The warm light from the house was behind him, and his face was shadowed. She couldn’t read his expression. “I thought that was a ruse. We aren’t visiting your family. Didn’t you hear me? I want to reach Semo quickly.”
“My mother and sister, Sira, live due north of here. It would make sense, strategically, to stop at their home, both to rest and to gain any knowledge about activity on the border. My mother’s a border guard. She should have insight into the mood of the people of Semo. Any knowledge of what we’re walking into could be useful, especially if this is a trap. We’ll cross the border at dawn, at peak strength, ready for whatever Merecot has planned.”
She studied him. “That’s the only reason? Strategy?”
“I’d also like you to meet my family,” he said simply.
She frowned. Why does it matter so much to him? Then she saw the look in his eyes, the warmth that had first drawn her to him.
And for the first time in what felt like a very long time, Naelin smiled.
Chapter 15
Once Naelin and Ven were beyond Threefork, with Arin safe and still asleep in her parents’ house, Naelin summoned two nearby spirits: earth spirits who clawed their way out of the dirt between the roots of the vast trees. One looked like a wolverine carved from rotted wood and another was bear-shaped but made of moss and mud.
“They’ll carry us.”
“Or we could take the wire paths,” Ven suggested.
Naelin climbed onto the back of the bear-shaped spirit. She wound her fists in the moss that clumped at its neck. “The wire paths are dangerous.”
“Spirits are more dangerous.”
“They know I’ll destroy them if they fail us.”
“You’ll destroy part of the forest if you do too,” Ven said.
“Then they had better not disobey me.”
Ven shot her a grin, and then climbed down the tree and mounted the wolverine. He trusts me, she thought. Even after all I’ve done. She grinned back at him. Beneath her, the spirit sniffed and snorted, pawing at the dried leaves on the ground. They crunched beneath its paws.
“Let’s go,” he said.
North, Naelin instructed their mounts.
Both spirits bounded forward.
Above them, the wind blew strong and the trees swayed, causing the light that hit the floor to shift like waves. Autumn leaves swirled as they fell, raindrops of red and amber, filling the forest with each gust of wind.
Behind her, Ven shouted directions: north, then east. Naelin passed it along to the spirits.
As they traveled, Naelin found herself wondering about Ven’s family. Ven never talked about them much, so Naelin had assumed the memories were painful and hadn’t pried. But he’d seemed so eager to introduce her that she thought maybe she’d been wrong. What kind of childhood shaped a champion? What kind of people had raised him? He’d mentioned a mother and siblings, but she had no feel for what they were like or what they meant to him. I suppose I’ll find out soon, she thought.
As the day waned, the forest floor dipped into shadows. Above, the canopy still caught the low light of the sun, but it no longer filtered deep in between the trees. It brushed the surface of the leaves high above them. She sensed the energy of their spirit mounts beginning to flag—these two were used to resting at night, and with the growing shadows, they began to slow. “I think we’ve reached the limit for these mounts.”
“There’s a wire path above us, but it’s a ways up,” Ven said. “Unless there are winged spirits nearby large enough to carry us, we’ll need to free-climb.” He dismounted from the stone bear and began to rummage through his pack for ropes, clips, and other climbing gear.
She reached out with her mind and touched several air spirits, but all of the nearby ones were tiny, like puffs of dandelion fluff, drifting with the falling leaves. She also sensed an abundance of tiny tree spirits in this region of the forest, skittering with the squirrels at dusk. Sliding off the back of the earth spirit, she landed on the ground, knelt, and felt through the leaves until she found what she was looking for: an acorn. “Come stand here and hold on to me,” she told Ven.
“Exactly what do you have in mind?” Ven asked.
Naelin showed him the acorn and then planted it in the soil. She’d never tried this before, but it should work. If not, I can handle looking stupid in front of Ven. Concentrating, she called to the tree spirits. Come. Grow. Tall and straight, up to the sky. Come and grow!
The spirits poured down from the trees. A few at first, then dozens swarmed over the branches and the trunks, pulled by her call. She stretched her arms out as if welcoming them into an embrace. Chittering to one another in raspy voices, the squirrel-like spirits came first, burrowing into the earth in a circle around them, and she saw a sprout unfurl between her feet. Its leaf was a pale translucent green that almost seemed to pulse with its own light, and then it pushed its way out of the earth, thickening as it grew. She straddled it as more tree spirits filled the forest floor around them: green tangles of leaves with lithe little bodies, gnarled bits of wood with humanlike faces and spiderlike legs, and larger stumplike spirits with faces made of bark.
She saw the sprout split into branches, and she carefully positioned her feet on one tender shoot. “Hang on tight,” she told Ven. “This might fail spectacularly.”
“It won’t,” Ven said as he wrapped his arms around her waist. She glowed at both his confidence and his touch.