Gods of the Forevergreen
Part One
“Spar,” he repeated. His fingers slowly traced the contours of her face, then drifted up into her hair. **My Sohn.**
She shuddered to hear him assert his possession of her with such a carefree smile. The instant he returned her soulname she knew – she knew he understood it, understood the power she had unwittingly given him.
She had never felt a sending like that before, like something from the time of the High Ones.
And now she was his, as surely as if she had Recognized him.
And he knew it.
She looked away, overcome with shivers. Her vision swam. She was certain she would be ill.
“Why do you shiver? You have nothing to fear.”
Spar thought quickly. Best not to anger him.
“The – the humans... I am not used to so many. They frighten me.”
“Of course. Leave us, all of you! I would be alone with my mate.”
“Almighty,” Kamara began obsequiously.
Door looked up from Spar and met Kamara’s eyes for the first time. “Go,” he commanded.
Kamara growled under his breath, but he motioned for his guards to withdraw. The servile humans who clustered around the throne with offerings of fruit and water likewise rose and departed, bowing and murmuring prayers of thanksgiving. Finally even Kamara turned and left the room, closing the door behind him with a resounding slam of protest.
Spar turned back to Door. “We heard your call,” she said quickly. Best to distract him, to make him forget. “Sunstream, Master of the Palace, he received your sending. He shared it with all of us. Your world, it seemed such a wonderful place, full of warmth and life.”
“It was... so beautiful here... when the Hoan-G’Tay-Sho first arrived... after the journey over mountains and water... a place of magic and healing. But that place... is dying. The old ways are vanishing. That is why I called for you. I need the help of my kind to restore what is even now fading. I... so alone. Kamara told me all the ‘spirits’ had fled this world. I feared I would call into the night forever, and only silence would answer me. But you answered me, my Spar.” He stroked her cheek fondly. “There is so much to be corrected... so much to put back in place. I cannot do it alone. But now I have you, and we will rule over a time of peace and healing.”
Spar shook his hand off her. “But you’re not alone, Door. There are more elves than just me. My kin, my friends, they’re looking for me even now. They’re coming for me even now. They’ll be here before you know it. And when we leave, you can come with us. You can see the Palace! The Palace of the High Ones – the ancestral Firstcomers’ Shell. Oh, there are so many elves out there, Door. A world out there for you to explore.”
Door smiled and shook his head. “No... no...”
“Yes,” Spar insisted, risking a smile now.
“No,” he touched her face again. “They won’t take you away from me. No, my precious mate.” His eyes turned steely. “No, Sohn. I won’t let anyone take you away from me.”
“There were two Doors at Blue Mountain,” Sunstream explained. “A female who guarded the main entrance to Blue Mountain, and a male who guarded the entrance to Winnowill’s private chambers. The female Door must have died during the collapse of Blue Mountain and the Great Egg. The male Door was still guarding Winnowill’s chambers when the Egg began to collapse. He had trapped Skywise in the rocks just outside Winnowill’s room. He would have left Skywise to die – he didn’t care, he didn’t think – all that mattered was fulfilling his duty. My mother dragged him from his perch and forced him to release Skywise. I’m still not certain how she did it, but somehow, she broke through the fog in Door’s mind. She dragged him and Skywise to safety just as the Egg fell. The humans who lived at Blue Mountain – the Hoan-G’Tay-Sho, they asked to protect the “bird-spirit” and care for him. Door seemed to have gone... out... or within, again. We were all exhausted. Mother was suffering from Winnowill’s attack. Father was being driven half-mad by the spirits of the Gliders who had chosen him as their guide back to the Palace. We only wanted to rest. And so we let the humans take Door.”
“I still don’t understand,” Wavecatcher said. “Why let him go off... with them?”
“Aye, that’s the hardest part of the story to understand,” Dart agreed.
“I don’t know why we did,” Sunstream said. “I was just a cub at the time, tired, miserable, terrified to see what the ordeal had done to my sister, my parents. The other Wolfriders... they wanted nothing more to do with Blue Mountain. Even Tyldak didn’t know what to do with Door. Mother... she once said, ‘He’s not just a mushroom. He’s an elf. He wants to live, like any other elf.’ But we had no idea how to teach Door to live. Father... well, perhaps if he hadn’t had all the souls of the Gliders buzzing around him, goading him towards the Palace... he might have urged us to heal Door. But... I don’t know,” he rolled his shoulders. “The humans... Tyldak said we could trust them, said they might well be the best one to help Door heal. And the young boy who had appointed himself leader – his name was... Geoki – he pleaded so eloquently. ‘Let us shelter him now, as he and his kin have sheltered us for so long.’ But in the end I suppose, we were selfish. We wanted to rest. We wanted everything neatly tied up. So we let them take him, and we forgot about him.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Suntop.” Quicksilver touched his arm. “You were only a cub then.”
He smiled a little to hear his cub-name on her lips. Even after all these years, she still forgot sometimes.
“I don’t know. We all thought we were doing the right thing.”
“Once you’ve climbed up the mountain you can always see better than before you started,” Quicksilver said.
“She’s right,” Dart says. “What matters now is getting Spar back.”
Sunstream closed his eyes. **Spar?** he called. **Spar, are you there?**
A faint reply buzzed in the air, inaudible to the others. **Sunstream...?**
**Stars. I can barely hear you. Have they hurt you?**
**Venom... poison on the darts... my head is still spinning.**
There was more. Her sending was badly shaken.
**We heard the humans say ‘Door.’ Is it true?**
**Yes. Oh, Sunstream, you should see him. He is... so wrong inside. He seems to think he’s in a dream... Sunstream, he thinks I’m his mate!**
**His mate?**
**His sending... so powerful... I... couldn’t.... I have to go. I can’t let him know I’m sending. Sunstream, he won’t let me go. He says he’ll stop anyone who comes for me. Be careful. I have to go.**
**Go,** Sunstream sent. **We’ll come for you. Don’t fear.**
Sunstream shared the lock-sending with the others. “She’s very afraid,” he added when he had relayed the exchange. “More so than she lets on. Door’s awake now, and he’s as dangerous as the Black Snake. More... I think he holds her by more than merely human servants.”
“Winnowill held my mother by her very soulname,” Windkin brooded. “It’s been so many years, and she still won’t talk about it. Do you... do you think Door has a similar hold on Spar?”
“Could be. Her sending was... different somewhat. I think Winnowill may have taught Door quite a few tricks.”
“He was her pupil, wasn’t he?” Quicksilver said. “Her personal rockshaper.”
“We can’t leave Spar with him,” Yun said hotly. “Not for a heartbeat. Call the Palace, Sunstream. We’ll break right into whatever village they’re hiding in, kill ourselves a few round-ears, and bust her out.”
“I’m with Yun,” Quicksilver said. “Call the Palace.”
Windkin nodded. Dart, Kimo and Wavecatcher were more reticent. Sunstream shook his head. “We can’t risk it.”
“Risk?” Yun sneered. “What’s the risk?”
“Oh, I dunno,” Dart muttered. “Giant crystal mountain starts hovering about their village... naw, they won’t panic and do something rash.”
“He’s right,” Sunstream said. “The humans could kill Spar. Door could kill Spar. She said he had no intention of giving her up. In his state... and hers... we can’t risk it. There’s another danger. Suppose the humans decide to shoot the Palace down? Suppose Door sees the Palace and decides to take it for himself. We were unbelievably fortunate that Haken wanted nothing to do with the Palace once we had revived Chani. We cannot risk any damage to the Palace. It’s worth more than all our lives combined.”
Quicksilver set her mouth in a scowl, but she did not disagree with him.
“So what are we supposed to do?” Yun asked.
“We go in and we get Spar out. Ourselves.”
“Seven of us against a nest of five-fingers? We should call for reinforcements.”
Kimo grinned. “Come on, Yun, where’s that Go-Back recklessness?”
Dart gave Kimo a chastizing slap to the shoulder.
“Smaller numbers are to our advantage,” Sunstream said.
“The human nest can’t be far from here, if Spar’s already there,” Dart decided. “We should be able to find it without too much problem.”
“I can scout from the air,” Windkin offered.
“No! We can’t risk it. We’ll travel by cover of trees and darkness.” Sunstream looked up at the sky, barely visible through the rainforest canopy. “It’s almost sunrise. “We can’t risk travel by day. Let’s camp up in the trees for the day.” **Spar,** he risked another lock-send. **We’ll come for you by night. Be strong.**
Spar dozed on the carpet at Door’s feet. The venom in the darts was slow to wear off, and she was exhausted from the night’s events. Slowly she raised her head. Door was fast asleep, sitting up in his throne.
Spar looked down at her hands. The humans had decked her with jade bracelets and little golden rings. Two little claw-like slips graced her fore- and middle finger on her left hand.
The claws were so sharp. She could punch one in Door’s jugular and kill him right there...
Or she could simply tiptoe to the door, and face whatever lay beyond it...
She quickly got to her feet and began to back away from the throne.
Door’s eyes snapped open. Spar froze.
“Where are you going?” he asked in his deceptively soft, almost dreamy voice.
“I... I have to go,” Spar stammered.
“Where?”
His gaze was so piercing, his voice oddly soothing. She felt her legs tremble.
“I... I want to bathe,” she stammered out. “And... and then I want to sleep.”
“Oh. Oh. Of course.”
She heard a bell ring somewhere. Suddenly the room was filled with human women.
“My mate wishes to rest. See to her needs.”
“Of course, Almighty,” they murmured, and soon the Tall Ones swarmed around her, shepherding her away from Door and the stone chair.
Kamara had snuck in with the women. He must have been waiting outside the door all this time. Spar craned her head to see over the women and strained to hear the whispered words exchanged between elf and human.
“There are other elves here,” Door said, and his voice grew icy. Icy... but still soft, a seductive whisper.
“No, Almighty Door. We found the beautiful redcrowned spirit, none other.”
“You’re lying. There are others. My mate has told me.”
Kamara swallowed hard. “What is your will, Almighty?”
“Find these others. They will try to take my mate away. Search the forest. Find them. Bring them here, alive. No one will take my goddess from me.”
Spar shuddered. “Ohh, are you cold, Almighty?” the women asked.
“Yes,” Spar lied. “You gave me precious little to wear, after all.”
Sunstream’s sending touched her mind. **We’ll come for you by night. Be strong.**
**They’re coming to hunt you down, Sunstream. Guard your own hides before you worry about me.**
Windkin couldn’t sleep. The rays of the sun set the understory aglow with emerald light. He glanced down from his perch high among the branches. Sunstream and Quicksilver were snuggled up together on a lower branch. Dart and Kimo were fast asleep in a little fork of another tree. Yun was dozing in Wavecatcher’s arms.
Everyone else could take comfort with their lifemate. Windkin was alone.
He missed Ahdri. And he could only imagine how lonely Spar must feel, trapped inside the human nest. A feeling of protectiveness for his old lovemate stirred in his breast. How could Sunstream sleep so peacefully knowing Spar was a prisoner of brutish five-fingers and an insane Glider?
No. It wasn’t right that they sleep the day away. He got up from the branch and floated higher into the trees. No one stirred below. Emboldened, Windkin flew up into the emergent layer, and higher. He broke through the canopy and glided above the sea of green, startling the roosting birds into flight.
He’d find Spar, break her out of the human prison, and return to camp before Sunstream even woke up. How bad could the round-ears’ nest be? He had seen the cramped wooden camps of the humans in the Great Spur. He had flown over the squalid villages near Thorny Mountain, and he had even spied on the bestial encampments that clustered around the edges of the Burning Waste. These Hoan-G’Tay-Sho couldn’t mount any real resistance.
The forest thinned, and Windkin was forced to choose his path carefully as he flitted from cover to cover. Small farmlands were scattered in the clearings. A few brown-skinned women and children were hard at work in the plowed fields, not unlike Sun Folk. Windkin flew higher over the sparse covering of trees. Where was their nest?
He drew to an abrupt halt and hovered in the air as the Hoan-G’Tay-Sho settlement came into view.
Huge pillars of gray rock, jagged and menacing, rose up from the ground, forming a defensive ring around the city. Wooden scaffolding sat just inside the rocks, and humans stood at wooden watchtowers every thirty or so paces. And beyond the rocks, nestled in the center of the ring, was a village of stone. No mean wooden huts or animal-hide tents. The humans lived in houses of rock and clay, and they walked on stone lanes. His eyes quickly counted hundreds of the little houses. And in the center of the city, rising from the lanes in five levels, was a massive hall of stone. Sloping ramps connected the levels, and incense burners consumed a fragrant brew of oils at each of the many open doorways.
Everywhere, the humans were swarming, like an army of ants.
**Sunstream?** Windkin sent uncertainly.
Instantly the Palacemaster knew Windkin had left camp. **Windkin! Are you mad. I told you to stay hidden by day!**
**Never mind that.** He sent Sunstream an image of the city below. “We’ve got bigger problems now.**
* * *
She looked up. Door floated in the air high above her, just below a highly ornamented skylight. Puckernuts, Spar thought. If I could only get up there, I could easily slip through the bars. But Door did not even notice her now. He was awake, she could see his open eyes. But his mind was elsewhere. Was he going out as Rayek and Sunstream did? Or was he only lost in memories? She remembered the stories of her childhood. Door’s eyes had been open so long ago when Swift rescued him from Thorny Mountain.
“Door?” she called. “Are you listening? I know you can hear me. You have the power to release me. We can get away from here. We can be free, away from this place, together!”
“You must not say such things, little goddess,” one of the women murmured.
“Door!” Spar called. “Curse it! What’s wrong with him?”
“Nothing is wrong with the Almighty,” The woman drew nearer. “Please, little goddess. Kamara must not hear you speak so.”
Spar ignored her. “Door!” she shouted. “Poke it! I wish Windkin were here,” she muttered. “I could use a Glider’s magic right now.”
Suddenly a force lifted her up off the ground, and she floated up to meet Door. Soon she was hovering eye to eye with him, and now his gray eyes were intensely fixed on her.
“Gliders? Are there other Gliders?”
Spar hesitated. “Yes.”
“Who? Who survived the Mountain’s collapse?”
Again Spar wondered if she ought to hold her tongue. But looking into Door’s eyes, feeling his voice seem to sink into her very soul, she couldn’t resist. “Tyldak. Did... did you know Tyldak?”
Door frowned, and his eyes became unfocused as he sifted through the ancient memories. “The winged one... yes...”
“He left Blue Mountain three turns before it collapsed. He Recognized a member of my tribe, Dewshine. They have a son, Windkin. And... and there are others.”
“Others? I thought they all perished.”
“No. A few survived. Aurek – You knew him as Egg. He lives with us now. And Aroree, one of the Chosen Eight. She was outside the mountain when it fell, but she still lives there, in the caves underneath the rubble. So does her lifemate, Two-Edge, Winnowill’s half-troll–”
Suddenly she dropped. Door had released his hold on her, and the floor rushed up to meet her. Wolfrider that she was, Spar’s reflexes kicked in, and she landed in a crouching position.
Door was now on the floor at her side. “Winnowill!” His voice was no longer gentle and seductive, but harsh and rasping. Pure rage flashed in eyes, and beneath the anger, genuine horror. “Does she live still?” **Does she?**
“No.” Spar shook her head, recoiling at the power of his sending. “She died when the mountain fell.”
Relief washed over Door’s face. He sighed softly, and his eyes unfocused. Once again he was lost in his own world. He forgot about Spar and floated back up towards the skylight. Spar was left shivering on the stone floor.
One of the women slowly drew closer to Spar. “Are you well, little goddess?”
Spar stumbled as she got to her feet. “You must never speak that name,” the woman cautioned. “Please, little goddess. To speak it carries the penalty of death.”
“Death?”
Now the woman was looking up at Door. “The legends say that he travels within. He lives in a world of his own creation, far from the places we know. Lord Kamara says he travels on such wondrous journeys... that his thoughts are ever with the birds.” She lowered her heavily-lashed eyes. “But I think the Almighty does so to retreat... when he is afraid. Because of her. Because of Win-o-will.”
“The Black Snake,” Spar whispered.
“You know her.”
“Oh, yes. All us... spirits, know of the Black Snake.”
“You must never speak her name. The common people must never know that our Almighty was once another’s slave. There can be only one Almighty, one god and one goddess. Kamara and the Geo’kali demand it.”
Spar looked around the room desperately. She saw none of Kamara’s tall broad-shouldered guards, only the quiet dark-skinned Tall Ones. “What is your name?” Spar asked the woman.
“Arua, Almighty.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“As you will, Goddess Redcrown.”
“Don’t call me that either. My name is Spar.”
Arua hesitated. “Then when Kamara’s ears are closed, I will call you Spar.”
“You hate him too, don’t you?”
Arua’s eyes darkened. “His people have enslaved mine for eight generations. I serve the Almighty, not the Geo’kali.”
“There are other spirits in the forest,” Spar whispered. “My friends and kin. Door has sent Kamara and his men to find them and bring them here.”
Arua looked pained. “Oh, no. I had hoped what Kamara said was true – that you alone fell from the sky. If he and his men find any others spirits – whether they can fly or not – outside the city walls, they will kill them.”
Spar turned deathly pale. “But Door... he said–”
“Kamara does not listen to the Almighty. And he will not risk the people discovering that the legends of one god alone are not true.”
Spar felt her legs tremble. “No...” she murmured. No! She could not stay here in this stone prison. She shoved Arua out of the way and raced for the silk-laden bedroom the women had prepared for her. A soft bed not unlike the mattresses the Sun Folk used sat in the center of the room, and at the far wall a window looked out over the wild jungle the humans had let grow between the back of the ziggurat and the spires of rocks Door had long ago shaped for them.
Once again she struggled with the bars that covered the windows. A lattice-work of stone shaped like vines kept forest birds from roosting and small elves from fleeing. She could contort herself in a variety of shapes, but she still could not make her shoulders clear the stone bars. She remember vaguely a trip to the far north, and a young Go-Back who knew how to dislocate and relocate his shoulders at will. If she could only squeeze through the bars and find shelter in the underbrush, she could easily outwit any blundering humans.
But she did not dare risk popping her arm from her shoulder without a sureproof way to pop it back in. She could not scale the rock spires with only one good arm.
Oh, if only there was some wood in these bars, then she could shape her way out. Her father’s gentle teachings had helped her increase her treeshaping powers, and while she would never achieve Redlance’s level of expertise, she could easily shape an escape route through wooden walls.
But all was stone here. And the one time she had broken a hole through a wooden door, Kamara’s guards had been waiting for her.
She seized a little sculpture from the side table and brought it hard against the bars. Nothing. Again she slammed the carving against the bars, hoping to find a weak spot somewhere, anywhere.
Arua hovered in the doorway. “Oh, please don’t, little goddess!”
“Agh!” Spar shook the bars, but they did not even tremble.
Now Door appeared in the room, and Arua withdrew in fear. Spar turned to see the Glider regarding her with his typical drowsy curiousity. Had he already forgotten how he had let her fall twenty feet? Anger rose inside her.
“Let me out!” she demanded. “You’re a rockshaper – shape me a way out now!”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t stay here! I’m a Wolfrider – I need to be free!”
“You’re my mate. Your place is here.”
Spar’s fragile self-control snapped. She took hold of the edge of the wooden table and her shaping powers molded the wood into a pointed dagger. She broke the stake from the table and held it up. “I am not your mate! Let me go! Or I’ll show these humans that their ‘Almighty’ can bleed!”
Door stared at her impassively. Spar vaulted over the bed between them and aimed the point of the stake at his throat. She was almost upon him when Door moved, but when he did, he moved quickly. A hand shot up to seize her wrist, and the stake stopped short of his neck. Spar beat Door’s chest with her free hand and snarled, baring her pointed canines. She struggled to free her wrist, but Door held her with a vice-like grip.
**Stop,** he sent calmly.
**Curse you!** Spar raged.
**Stop, Sohn,** he repeated, his inner voice just as calm, but with a resonance that pierced her mind’s defenses. Spar crumpled to the floor and the stake clattered to the floor uselessly. Her head spun and she gasped for breath. Door calmly reached down and retrieved the stake. Then he strode away, leaving Spar helpless on the floor.
“Take away all wooden objects,” he ordered Arua. “I wouldn’t want my mate to hurt herself.”
Spar slowly propped herself up on her elbows. “I hate you!” she spat at Door.
“You’re tired,” Door replied dismissively.
“I’ll kill you!” she vowed, the blood of the Hunt rising in her veins.
“No, you won’t.”
He was right. As long as he held her soulname, she was at his mercy.
**Spar...** a voice called in the distance. It was Windkin.
**Windkin,** she forced her mind to close off to all but the young Glider outside the city. **Where are you?**
**In the rocks on the west side of the stone mountain in the center of the village. I’m coming for you, don’t worry.**
Spar glanced up. Door lingered in the doorway, his head cocked to one side, as if listening.
**Windkin! Get out of here! Now!**
Door smiled. And he swept from the room.
Windkin knew something was wrong. Suddenly the round-ears were swarming on the wooden scaffolding. And now Spar’s sending rang out in his head. **Windkin, he heard me! He’s like the Black Snake – he can spy on our sendings. You have to get out of here!**
Windkin hesitated a moment. He was perched quite percariously in the rocks. To fly now would be to be spotted, especially with the humans everywhere. But the shouts of nearing warriors convinced him to risk it. He flew from his perch and ascended into the sky as swiftly as his Glider blood allowed him.
Oh, that I had Father’s wings, he thought. He could not accelerate nearly fast enough. Not with the humans screaming and raising their weapons.
They shot at him with their blowguns, but he was already out of range and the darts fell back to earth harmlessly. Bravado overcame his good sense then, and Windkin laughed as he hovered above them.
“Take a good look at your flying demon, Tall Ones!” he shouted down at them as he turned to make his escape.
A projectile caught his left side hard, and he wavered in the air as he lost control of his powers. Instinct took over, and he clamped his hand over the entry wound and the smooth shaft of the arrow as he flew over the city. He could feel the blood flowing over his hand, dripping down to the ground. His eyes stung as sweat from his brow trickled down his face. The pain burned the harder he taxed himself. But he flew beyond the rock spires, beyond the farmlands, back into pristine forest before his strength failed him and he crashed through the trees.
Somehow he found the strength to ease himself into a little nest of branches and leaves. Panting with exhaustion, he contemplated the arrow lodged in his ribs. It was not in deep, and the stone arrowheads the Tall Ones used were smooth, without barbs. Gasping, he yanked the arrowhead free and cast it away. He grabbed the closest, broadest leaves he could find and pressed them against the wound.
His head spun. His lungs burned.
Poison. Curse the round-ears.
**Sunstream...** he sent weakly. **Help.**
“Curse it all!” Sunstream swore as he received Windkin’s last feeble message. “Windkin’s hurt.” He turned to the others, all drowsy in the treetops as their afternoon sleep was interrupted. “We have two elves to rescue now.”
They made their way through the jungle slowly, picking their way from branch to branch with increasing trepidation as they neared the human nest. Soon they could spot the crown of jagged rocks that Windkin showed them in his sending-picture. Humans were working in the farmlands as the sun began to descend into the western sky.
“We go carefully now,” Sunstream said. “No second chances. Windkin is on the other side of the city.”
They slowly circled the edge of the city, taking care to stay in densely forested areas. The sun was setting when they reached the place where Sunstream had last sensed Windkin’s presence.
Kimo spotted something on the forest floor. With a nod of assent from Sunstream, the shape-shifter elf darted down to the underbrush and retrieved the human arrow. Dried blood covered the stone arrowhead.
“There are five-fingers’ footprints everywhere,” Kimo said. “Windkin was here.”
“But where’s Windkin?” Yun asked. “Can’t you send to him, Sunstream?”
“He’s keeping me out of his mind. I can’t lock-send to him, and I don’t dare send openly with Door prowling inside those rocks.”
“But can’t you find him?” Yun scowled. “Isn’t there... like a ripple that comes back to you, when he locks you out? I thought you were the hub of the wheel that connects all elves!”
“He’s doing his best,” Quicksilver shot back. “He’s not a bloody High One.”
“If Windkin’s locking me out, I’m betting there’s a good reason,” Sunstream said. “No one sends now. Not until we find him and we can get some answers.”
“How will we find him, then?” Kimo asked.
Sunstream smiled wryly. “You and Dart are full-blooded Wolfriders. Can’t you scent him out?”
“It’s hard...” Dart murmured. He breathed deeply, then winced. “So many humans... such stink.”
“There’s no wind either,” Yun said. “Everything just sort of muddles together in this humidity.”
At length Kimo sighed. “I can’t pick up a thing.” He frowned. “You know... my senses are always heightened when I’m in wolf form. I think... if I changed... I might be able to find something.”
Sunstream frowned. “I don’t know... a big black wolf prowling the jungle...”
“The humans haven’t passed by here in hours. Their scent has gone cold. I think it would be safe. If... if you think so,” he added.
Sunstream glanced at his lifemate. Quicksilver shrugged. “It’s worth a chance.”
“All right. Yun, Dart, Quicksilver, take up spotting positions. Wavecatcher, you stay with me. If we see any sign of trouble we’ll whistle, Kimo. Shape back and get up into the trees as fast as you can. Understood?”
Kimo nodded. He quietly unlaced his boots and handed them to Wavecatcher. He climbed down from the trees and loosened the loincloth about his waist. Then he began to change. His black hair whirled about his face and seemed to spread across his body. His limbs lengthened and his shoulders narrowed. The blue leather settled comfortably about his furry neck as the metamorphosis was complete. Kimo looked up at the hidden elves and flashed them a lupine grin before he set to work sniffing the brush were he had found the arrow.
“Think he’ll find something?” Wavecatcher asked.
To answer his question, Kimo panted and shook his head in the direction of the scent trail. Suddenly the wolf was off, bounding through the underbrush. “Follow!” Sunstream hissed, and the five elves raced through the trees to keep pace.
They broke through a tangle of vines and looked down at the ground. Kimo was again sniffing, now the air instead of the ground. He tipped his head back and howled loud into the growing dusk.
“Shh, Kimo!” Sunstream hissed.
“Wait a minute,” Dart said. “You know... Windkin been living in the Sun Village for years, but he used to howl like no one else when he lived in the Great Holt. Maybe... I wonder if he remembers his old tribe howl.” Before Sunstream could stop him, Dart cupped his hands around his mouth and howled “Yip-yip-yooowwwlll! Yip-yip-yoooooaaaoooohhh!” into the forest.
“Cursed wolves!” Kamara cursed. “Base beasts of the forest. Pay them no heed, Almighty.” But Door was watching Spar, who crouched miserably under the barred window. Her ears perked up at the sound of the howls, and tears welled in her eyes.
Dart and Kimo. I hear you...
Now more voices joined the chorus, all crying out in their secret language for a reunion, all crying out for Windkin.
She licked her lips. She was faint from self-imposed fasting. But she put her face to the bars of the window and howled as loudly as she could.
“Be quiet!” Kamara shouted.
“Let her be,” Door said softly. “She is singing to her forest servants.”
“My lord–” Kamara began sharply.
“Enough,” Door said. Then he lowered his voice. “Find them. And find the one you claim you wounded. My mate longs for company.”
Spar heard every word. But she did not care. The tears ran down her cheeks as she howled for her friends.
“Listen,” Sunstream whispered.
“It’s Spar,” Dart said.
They waited in silence as Spar’s call faded out. Silence reigned in the growing dusk. Then finally, off to the west, came a weak howl.
“Windkin!” Sunstream grinned. “Let’s go!”
They raced through the trees, occasionally howling again for guidance. Darkness had fallen before they found Windkin. He lay in a clumsy bed of leaves and ferns high in the canopy, semi-conscious and curled in a fetal position. Instantly they saw the cause of his stricken state. He held a cluster of leaves against a wound in his side.
“Windkin? Windkin?” Yun fell at his side. “Come on, Glider, say something.”
“There’s where the arrow hit, all right,” Quicksilver lifted the dressing. “Oh, the skin is burning around the wound.”
“Poison...” Windkin breathed.
“Like the kind they shot Spar with,” Sunstream said. “She was out for most of the night.”
“Hold still,” Quicksilver said to Windkin. “This is going to hurt a little.” Gently she probed the wound with her fingertips, and Windkin moaned softly.
“It’s not bad. The venom did more damage than the arrowhead.”
Yun put her hand to Windkin’s forehead. “Ohh, he’s burning up. Can’t we do something for him?”
Wavecatcher touched Yun’s shoulder, but he had no words of comfort to offer.
Quicksilver frowned. “If only we were back home. Mother showed me all sorts of plants and herbs that can help ease fevers and cure illness – but none of them grow here in this cursed ‘Forevergreen.’ If I try to give him the wrong plant, I’ll just make things worse.”
“Then there’s nothing we can do but wait,” Sunstream said. “Cool water, a warm blanket, that’s about all we can offer him.” He leaned close to the strickenelf. “Windkin. Windkin, it’s Sunstream. Can you hear me?”
Windkin groaned and nodded.
“I know you’re tired. You’ll be fine come sunrise. But I need to know, why wouldn’t you send to me? Is it because of Door?”
Windkin nodded. “I think... he’s waking up. He heard Spar send to me... he knew... where I was.”
Sunstream shuddered. “Just like Winnowill...”
“Spar...” Windkin murmured.
“We heard her howl. She’ll be safe... for now. You just sleep. Let the venom work its way out of your blood. We’ll move again when you’re better.”
“Sorry...”
“You should be. It was a cursed stupid thing you did. You’ve lived too long chiefless, I think,” he teased. “All those years in the quiet Sun Village where you did as you pleased.”
“Quiet?” Windkin found the strength to smile. “You did not visit often... did you, Sunstre-” his voice failed him and he drifted back into dreams.
Kimo, back in elf form and steadily climbing the tree all this time, finally caught up with the others. “Windkin?”
“Sleeping,” Sunstream said. “We’ll have to stay here until he recovers. We can’t risk being separated again.”
“And Spar?”
Sunstream hung his head. “She’ll have to wait a little longer.”
Elfquest copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. Elfquest, its logos, characters, situations, all related indicia, and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Some dialogue taken from Elfquest comics. All such dialogue copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Alternaverse characters and insanity copyright 2014 Jane Senese and Erin Roberts