Between Worlds: the Collected Ile-Rien and Cineth Stories (25 page)

“It made a what and did what?” Giliead demanded, then
they both froze.

In the silence Ilias heard it again. A low groan, a
human groan, from further into the grove. Giliead eased away from him and Ilias
pushed cautiously forward, weaving around the trees, Giliead limping after him.

Following the edge of the pool where it wound further
into the grove, Ilias glimpsed movement. Another step revealed the source and
he stopped, glancing up at Giliead.

It was the wizard Pheneras. He was wound up in one of
the trees, pierced in a dozen places, the sharp branches weaving in and out of
him. Some were broken off as if he had fought it long and hard, and blood
stained the once fine material of his pants, shirt and overvest. Near the base
of the trunk was a second Pheneras, slumped over in a heap, half its head
bearing the sharp features and dark stringy hair of the wizard, the other half
in the process of dissolving into green ooze.

Ilias looked at Giliead in time to see him swallow
with difficulty. He glanced at Ilias, brow lifted, saying, “It did that to me?”

Ilias just nodded. Giliead shook his head with a
grimace and reached for the sword. Ilias handed it over and Giliead limped
forward, close enough to grab the real Pheneras’ hair and jerk his head
upright. Ilias twitched but the tree didn’t react to Giliead’s presence. Looking
closer, he saw the branches drooped, no longer trying to force a way deeper
into the wizard’s flesh. Giliead was right, it had been just one curseling,
connected to all the trees by the water.

Pheneras’ eyes blinked and opened, staring
uncomprehending at them. Giliead asked, “Did you know this was here?”

Pheneras drew a rattling breath, then his lips parted
in a rictus smile. “No, it’s old, older than any of us. Finding it was a happy
accident. I saw it call you, I watched you fight it all night until it wore you
away and took you in its embrace. But I lingered too long, and it seized me
too.”

Giliead was silent a moment, then nodded to himself. He
said, “If you’d known it was here, I would have left you like this,” and thrust
the sword into Pheneras’ chest.

Taking the head was awkward but they managed it. Since
Giliead needed Ilias to lean on and they only had three usable arms between
them, Ilias broke his rule about not carrying wizard heads, and said only, “I
hope you remembered to bring a bag this time.” Giliead grumbled a retort Ilias
didn’t bother to listen to.

Making their stumbling progress back through the
forest, Ilias tried to make plans for when they could leave this motherless
place. Once Giliead’s wounds were cleaned and bound it would take him a few
days to be able to walk. Then they would need to do the rites for all these
bodies, to free any trapped shades wandering the woods. It was going to take
days.

Ilias realized it was only last night that Giliead had
said it was always others who got hurt, never him. Ilias said, “Well, it’s not
just others. You get hurt, too. Happy now?”

Giliead snorted ruefully. “Oddly enough, not really.”

About the Author

Martha Wells is the author of over a dozen fantasy novels,
including the Books of the Raksura series (
The Cloud Roads, The Serpent Sea,
The Siren Depths), The Wizard Hunters
, and the Nebula-nominated
The
Death of the Necromancer
, as well as the YA fantasies,
Emilie and the
Hollow World
and
Emilie and the Sky World
. She has had stories in
Black
Gate
,
Realms of Fantasy
,
Stargate Magazine, Lightspeed Magazine
,
and in the anthologies
Elemental
,
Tales of the Emerald Serpent,
and
The Other Half of the Sky
. She has also written media-tie-ins
Stargate
Atlantis: Reliquary, Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement,
and
Star Wars:
Razor’s Edge
. Her most recent books are a two-volume collection of novellas
set in the Books of the Raksura world,
Stories of the Raksura I: The Falling
World & The Tale of Indigo and Cloud
and
Stories of the Raksura II:
The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below
. Her website is
www.marthawells.com.