Death of the Body (Crossing Death) (2 page)

Both he and Hailey turned their backs to peer deep toward the west. “I don’t see anything,” Ralph said. “What was it?”

I could tell he wasn’t going to leave it alone. It was sad that the prospect of something on the horizon was enough to intrigue him, but I supposed we were all that bored. I’m sure Ralph hoped it was something shiny.

“I’m not sure,” I said, shrugging. “Whatever it was is gone now.”

My stomach growled and I heard Hailey snort. When she turned back to me, her face was lit with a smile that stretched so far over her teeth it must have hurt.

“Hungry, Edmund?”

“Starved. We didn’t get enough mushrooms for the trip. I’ve been staring at the blackberries the entire time Ralph gathered alfalfa,” I admitted.

“Well it’s my mom’s turn to cook tonight, so you know it’s going to be good.”

Visions of the town hall tables lined with plates piled high with vegetables, meat, tarts, and pies filled my head. Hailey’s mom always worked especially hard on town feasts. My mouth watered, so I reached out and snagged another blade of grass to chew on.

“How long, do you reckon?” Ralph asked. I knew exactly what he was referring to: how long until we were home.

I stood up and gazed south as we traveled through the long stretches of fields that touched the sky. I couldn’t see the slender trails of chimney smoke rising yet. Then I looked at the sun, which had traveled almost halfway between the center point of the sky and the western hills. “Two hours at best,” I said, slumping back down into the wagon. “We’d better stop and let the horse eat before too long.”

“I don’t see why
she
should get to eat before us,” Ralph complained.

Hailey shot him a disgusted look. “Because she’s the one that is going to get us
home
.”

Home. I saw Ralph’s face fall at the word. “What did you say?” he asked, not because of misunderstanding, but because of the way the word resonated through the air, caught the wind, and floated across the grass until it echoed from somewhere behind us. It was as if the world had echoed the word.

Hailey’s eyes grew large. In the pale sunlight they glowed hot ochre.

“Home,” she whispered again. To our ears, the word hung in the air like the tone from a tuning fork.

They both looked at me. Ralph was the first to attempt to speak, although the words got caught in his throat and sounded more like a croak.

“Edmund, is something wrong?”

My connection to the planet was the strongest. While Ralph’s abilities centered on things of the spirit and Hailey gravitated toward science and physical magic, my abilities were planet-centric and emotional. I concentrated on the blades of grass that bowed towards us to the rhythm of a new westerly wind.
Home, home, home,
was all they pulsed.

“I don’t know,” I finally admitted, although my head swam with a feeling that told me something was lurking, not wanting to be revealed by the wind. I couldn’t ask the grass what was wrong, it was just repeating the wind. Grass didn’t have deep enough roots to make a strong connection to Orenda. “I need to find something with deeper roots.”

There was a line of trees just a few hills away in the direction from which the wind had come. “Feed the horse,” I said. “I’ll be back.”

Ralph didn’t say anything and hesitated only slightly before grabbing a handful of alfalfa and tossing himself over the side of the cart. Hailey sat motionless, absently stroking her arms as if the temperature had dropped. I considered saying something to comfort her but instead jumped to the ground and headed for the trees.

It didn’t take long to get there at full sprint although my chest heaved with breathlessness. The muscles in my thighs ached when I finally stood among the branches. The run helped work out my tension, but the emotions didn’t dissipate until I was standing grounded in the small grove. The planet had an odd effect on my emotions—they felt heightened and overwhelming when the earth needed something from me, but when I needed to keep a cool head, I could drain them through my feet into the soil beneath me where they would be absorbed by the world around me.

When my emotions were in control, logic would assert itself and my mind could solve larger problems, problems that even the average ten-year-old mage wouldn’t be able to solve.

I thanked the earth for my ability, and searched, not for anything I could see, but for something I could feel. I made my way through the thick undergrowth until I found a tree that called to me. Its bark was gnarled and split with age but its dark green leaves boasted of health and fertility. It wasn’t the massive expression of the powerful and twisted limbs that struck me, it was the unconditional kindness that seemed to sprout up from deep within the trunk and through the tips of the smallest twig. The tree was inviting. Had I had a moment to spare, I would have liked nothing more than to curl underneath its shade and rest my head against its roots. Yes. This was the oldest tree here, the mother of the rest, and she was aware of my presence.

I reached out and gently stroked the rough bark. “Hello, Mother Tree,” I whispered. It wasn’t the words, but the feeling I needed her to hear.

A shudder went through me as the tree spoke back.
Hello, young one. Your heart is troubled and I sense you have come to make a request
, the wind hissed between her branches.

“I am from the town of Orenda.” Emotion overwhelmed me as I spoke, my connection to the tree and the earth now flooding back into me. I had to fight back the tears that tried to spill from my eyes. This tree had a powerful, kind, and overwhelming spirit. “I feel there is something this land wishes me to know about my hometown. Is there a line of roots that might happen to stretch all the way there?”

My roots are deep
.

“Might I use them, please, Mother Tree, to see? In return I shall grant you any favor you wish.”

A favor indeed. Pluck an acorn from within my branches and take it with you on your journey home. Plant it in Orenda so that I may spread my seed across this land. If this you so promise, I will allow you to see
.

I didn’t have to answer. Instead, I grabbed hold of the lowest branch and swung myself up into the tree. The ripe acorns were high but I was a decent climber. It didn’t take me long to reach a branch that was weighed down with large dark nuts. I plucked one gently and slid it into my pocket.

When my feet were back on the ground, I tenderly placed my hand against the trunk again. I caught my breath as emotion washed over me like an ocean, so large and deep it could have covered the entire surface of the planet. If every natural creature and element were connected to the ocean, and if I could see the beauty of the sea as it heaved and rolled, the resulting feeling that rose in me felt like someone was reaching inside my chest and holding my breastbone. That pressure, just above my heart, was where the feeling settled. That is what it felt like to be connected to the world as I was.

I surfaced somewhere in the middle of the town square, seeing through the perspective of one of the rose bushes that lined a trellis. The air around me was heavy. There was a smell I couldn’t recognize because it mixed so oddly with the sweet smell of the flowers. The atmosphere was filled with fog. My eyes must have been either tainted by the color of the rose or maladjusted, because I was only able to see through a reddish hue. I couldn’t make out the four walls that surrounded the square but the grass beneath me seemed normal enough.

“Who’s here?” a booming voice echoed. “I
will
find you.”

A cloaked man appeared beneath me. Since I was on a trellis, I was looking down at him. The cloak he was wearing was familiar, but the Elder’s robes were usually crisp, accented with sharp silver stitching. I had never seen an Elder looking so disheveled. The silver stitching along the seams of this robe were darkened with dirt.

“Elder!” I cried, the panic in my stomach subsiding. The man turned his face upward, and I saw a twinge in a familiar blue eye.

“Edmund?”

The sound of my name was recognizable. The man was not just an Elder but also one of my teachers.

“Joshua!” I exclaimed.

He was looking at me, a slight smile on his flushed face as understanding settled. He talked to the rose now.

“Edmund, where are you?”

“Still a few hours outside of town. We were gathering—”

“Who is with you?” His face showed concern, but his tone was impatient.

“Hailey and Ralph. We were talking about home when the wind whispered something terrible.”

“Edmund, listen to me. You must return as quickly as possible.”

The smell in the air that I hadn’t been able to place before became evident as an orange glimmer caught the corner of my eye. The trellis to which my vessel plant was clinging was on fire. It wasn’t fog that blurred my vision, it was smoke. It wasn’t dirt on the silver lining of Joshua’s cloak, it was soot.

“Joshua. What is going on?”

“The kingdom of men,” was his response. “Quickly. The horse must run. I will take care of you when you arrive but I don’t know how long I can linger. I will meet you at the gates.”

The fire around me roared. I heard the flames licking at the poor plant. “What happened? Men? My father? Where is my father?”

Joshua’s face fell. “There is no time. Go, Edmund. Quickly return to me.”

“But—”

My vision was consumed in hot flames, my body felt like it was being stretched. The roots of the plant were failing. I felt death creep through its vines as I was ripped from the haunting images of my home by firm hands around my waist. If hitting the ground hard wasn’t enough, I was forced to roll over and over again along the rocky terrain. I was disoriented and sputtering. Being rolled like that made my head swim.

“Edmund!”

The rolling stopped, but now I was being violently shaken. I opened my eyes and recognized Ralph’s face, covered in dirt, just inches from my own.

“Breathe!” He shook me again.

I gasped, but the air was so thick and smoky that it made me cough.

Ralph got up quickly, holding out his hand to me. “Get up!” he commanded.

“Wha—?”

His red hair had an unnaturally fiery glow to it, and his eyes were wild. “Get up!” he shouted again.

I reached toward his hand, but balked at the sight of my own. It was black, covered in ash. I looked down at my clothes; patches of cloth were missing, singed away.

Ralph pulled me to my feet. As he steadied me, my spinning head began making sense of things. I was back at the line of trees where I had spoken to Mother Tree.

“Let’s go!”

Hailey was under my arm, helping me walk. “You’ll be okay, Edmund. We need to get you back to the wagon.”

A loud explosion made me look back, but for the rest of my life I would wish I hadn’t. My eyes grew large in horror as the rest of my body froze. Fear pushed tears to my eyes that I didn’t feel coming, too quickly for me to push the emotion into the planet. I screamed, terrified, as Ralph and Hailey dragged me forward. Mother Tree, the oldest and kindest of the grove, had given her life for me. Large flames leapt from her branches, devouring her. The explosion I heard was a large branch splitting from her body and cracking as it hit the ground. The wind carried her screams, although the roaring of the flames muffled all other sound. Her acorns, her beautiful children, exploded in a sickening symphony of percussion.

My stomach rolled and I heaved. Every muscle in my body responded by tightening, which caused Ralph and Hailey to drop me. I fell on my hands and knees. I wanted to cry out but I choked on the smoke instead. I crawled toward the tree, but before I could reach out toward her, my friends restrained me again.

“You can’t save her!” Ralph pleaded. “Only fire cast by magic could have followed you back through the roots.”

My body convulsed. I couldn’t control the tears or the trembling. I was angry and frightened. Most of all, I was in pain.

A shower of ash and spark surrounded us. Smoke obscured the sun and coated the grove in a thick canopy of misery.

I heard Hailey whisper in my ear and I wondered how long she had been at my side. “We need to get out of here so we can find the people who did this and bring them to punishment with the Council of Elders. Please, Edmund!”

Humans. They must have done this.

The Elders. Joshua. He had asked me to return. He said he didn’t know how long he could stay and wait for us. Did that mean the mages were gone? Was he our last hope of finding them?

A new emotion surged through me: hate mixed with panic. I hated the kingdom of men. Somehow, they were involved in this. Somehow, they were to blame.

I found my balance and stood. Ralph and Hailey were there to help support my weight. I still trembled but I was determined to place one foot in front of the other.

My head seemed to clear with the cool, fresh air. The farther we walked from the grove, the more stable I became. When we made it back to the wagon, I gave myself a once-over. I was covered in ash and the uncovered parts of my arms and legs didn’t have any hair left. I had several burns and blisters on my legs and hands, but fortunately adrenaline still surged enough to keep the pain at bay. All that was left of my clothes were strips of charred material that clung together in patches. When I realized this, I reached for a blanket in the wagon and wrapped it tightly around me.