Protector Of The Grove (Book 2) (21 page)

“Communed,” Justan said. That was the closest word Justan could come up with, but in Yntri’s mind it meant more than a simple conversation with the tree. It also meant entering or becoming an extension of the tree. “I don’t understand. How is it done? The way you visualize it, it seems like I should travel physically into the tree.”

“
Talk and run
,” said Yntri and he started off again, heading back towards the road at a wide angle. Justan followed, sure that with the speed they had been making, they would reach the road quite a ways ahead of the others. “
The thing you say is correct. My people go inside the tree to speak with her, but humankind normally do not.
”

“Then what do we do?” Justan asked.

“
Do not be ignorant. You have a tool.
She has given you an instrument to use to converse with her
.”

“My bow,” Justan said, feeling foolish. It was obvious now that he thought about it. “So I speak with the tree through the bond. Why didn’t Jhonate just tell me that?”

“
She has the brain of a muskrat
,” Yntri replied. “
Yours is not much better. Our tree has been trying to speak with you. Constantly she tries, but you ignore her. You use her like any other bow
.”

“I am sorry. I guess I never saw her that way. I’ll need to apologize to her when I . . .” Justan frowned. “You did say our tree is a she?”

“
All Jharro trees are mothers, but this does not make them female
,” Yntri said. The elf came upon a stagnant pool of ice-covered water and leapt up. He grasped a low hanging branch and used it to swing to the other side.

The water was black and the sheet of ice thin. A terrible stench came off of it and Justan did not want his foot to sink in. Justan tried to follow Yntri’s example. He jumped and was just able to grasp the branch with his fingertips. It took all of his considerable strength to hold on as his lower body swung over the water. He shivered as he barely cleared the far side. What was in that pool and why did he have such a bad feeling about it?

“
Evil
,” said Yntri. “
A small amount of filth left behind by the Troll Queen
.”

“But she’s gone now. How long until it fades?” Justan wondered.

“
It may take some time. But these woods are full of good life. It will fade
,” Yntri assured him.

They ran on for a while, neither of them saying anything and Justan just enjoyed the run. This was how Gwyrtha felt when going at full speed. There was an exhilaration that came from gliding through the forest as if it weren’t an obstacle, but a roadway.

To Justan’s consternation, Yntri stopped again. He crouched to examine something and this time he motioned Justan over and clicked, “
This is something else you need to know
.”

Yntri was looking at what to Justan looked like a small paw print. Justan looked closer. From the way Yntri was encouraging him it seemed the elf wanted him to identify the source of the track.

From the little claw marks at the end of each toe he knew it wasn’t a cat and the toes were too short to be a raccoon. So a canine. It was too small for a wolf. “Is it a fox?”

“
Your thinking is not wrong
,” Yntri clicked. “
It is the print of a fox. If a fox weighed the same as a man
.”

Justan realized then how deep the print was for ground this cold. He grit his teeth. “A basilisk then.”

“
Yes. The flesh changer can make itself smaller or larger, but it cannot change its weight. This is one of the ways you can tell
,” Yntri said. “
But that is not all. Flesh changers learn several shapes and do them well. Sometimes they choose a shape that does not belong in an area. A fox would not live so near the troll queen’s old lair
.”

Justan scratched his head. He wouldn’t have thought of that, but then he wasn’t so familiar with the behaviors of animals. Tracking was not his strong point.

Yntri was listening to his thoughts. “
You need not know everything to recognize the flesh changer. Come closer. Smell. Your senses are stronger than most humans
.”

Justan leaned in closer and breathed in, focusing his attention on his sense of smell. His nostrils were filled with a strange odor. He leaned back, his nose wrinkled. “It smelled like . . . it’s hard to describe. Like a mix of things. A hundred creatures at once.”

“
Yes
,” Yntri said, nodding. “
The flesh changer has difficulty reproducing scents, but it tries. What comes out is a combination of every creature it has tried to become. Learn that scent. Don’t forget it. If you ever smell something like this, there is one of them nearby
.”

Justan leaned in and smelled again, memorizing the odor. It was not a pleasant task, but he planned on sharing the scent with Deathclaw and Gwyrtha the next time he spoke to them. He sat back on his haunches with a look of disgust and smacked his lips. He could taste it in his mouth. “Will the nightbeast smell the same?”

Yntri hesitated. “
It is hard to say. I have only come across three of the creatures in all my years. At times I did catch that same kind of smell, but they are wily and can control their scent in a way that other flesh changers cannot. Perhaps it only happens when they lose their focus
.”

“Tell me more about them,” Justan said. “I need to know what to do if I come across it.”

“
Talk and run
,” he replied. “
It is safer to be moving. The flesh changer that left this print is not nearby, but if they have been following our progress, they will try to surround us
.”

Justan nodded and they were off again. As they ran, Yntri told Justan much more about the nightbeast. It seemed that every once in a great while a special basilisk was born with stronger abilities than the others. They spent their younger years learning the fine details of changing their shape. Sometimes they would live among the peoples of the world for a while, taking on an identity and learning the correct behaviors.

 Other basilisks revered them as gods and followed their instructions. Once they had perfected their skills, the nightbeasts went amongst the basilisks and chose from among them a clutch of ten that they trained. They then became facilitators between the human world and the basilisks, negotiating fees and handing out assassination assignments.

“How many of them are there?” Justan asked.

Yntri said. “
There are no more than perhaps a few hundred flesh changers in all the known world. As for nightbeasts? All I can guess is that there needs be at least one for the flesh changers to become assassins. Without a nightbeast there would be no way for them to communicate with the rest of the world
.

“
I met one in my younger days
,” Yntri continued. “
It was inexperienced and I smelled the wrongness on it. It was not an enemy, so I spoke to it and it was surprised that I did not attack. We talked for a while and it told me of its ways. It offered to kill my enemies for just a jar of Jharro tree sap, but I declined. Hundreds of years later I saw another nightbeast. It was hired by powerful wizards and came with a full clutch to kill my people. Many of us were lost. My father slew it, but not before he was terribly maimed.

“Ten years ago I saw one more. It had been sent to kill the Protector of the Grove. Its flesh changers hounded Xedrion, but we killed them one by one. Then the nightbeast itself came. It got close to Xedrion twice but we were able to drive it away
.”

“That was the one that Hilt killed?” Justan asked.

“
Yes
.” He grew quiet for a moment and they finally came upon the road again. As Justan had suspected, they had arrived far ahead of the others. Yntri turned down the road and they headed back to meet up with the others. “
I tell you these things, Sir Edge, because last night during my watch I smelled that scent again. It was not the scent of a normal flesh changer, but it was the same scent I remembered from my younger days. It did not reveal itself to me, but I believe it to be the same nightbeast I met back then
.”

“From centuries ago? Are you sure?” Justan asked.

“
I am. It was a smell I have never forgotten
,” the elf clicked. “
But a nightbeast that old would not make the mistake of revealing itself in that way. I believe it left that scent purposefully. It wanted me to know that it recognized me
,” He looked at Justan then and there was worry in his ancient eyes. “
This nightbeast is experienced. It knows the tongue of my people. It could impersonate even me
.”

“That could be a problem. You come and go all the time. How can we know who you are?” It was a frightening prospect. Justan had figured that Yntri was someone the nightbeast could never emulate.

“
There is the tree
,” Yntri said with a smile. He lifted his bow and Justan understood. “
I will give each of you a small token from my bow. With it you can know if it is me
.”

Justan let out a sigh of relief. That connection was something that the nightbeast could not duplicate, no matter how experienced it was. In addition, Yntri could use his tokens to make sure that the nightbeast wasn’t posing as any of them. “Does Hilt know all of this?”

“
I told him earlier
,” Yntri assured him. “
The important thing for you is that you commune with our tree. No delays. Do it tonight. Learn her heart and you will be able to feel the pulse of the wood. Then you can truly learn to use your bow
.”

“Will I be able to make her do the things that you and Jhonate do?” Justan asked, growing excited at the thought.

“
There are many things your bow can do
,” Yntri clicked in reply. “
But first speak to her. Learn her
.”

 They soon caught up with the others. Yntri made everybody stop while he listened to them and made sure that everyone was truly themselves. Afterwards, looking groggy, he gave each of them a small piece of Jharro wood from his bow that he strung with a strip of leather so that they could wear it around their necks. He instructed them not to take it off until they were all safely in Malaroo. His bow was looking rather small at this point, but when Justan asked him about it the elf just yawned. He climbed onto Stanza and slept on top of everyone’s bedrolls through most of the afternoon.

Hilt set a quick pace for the group, keeping everyone at a near jog. Jhonate and Justan walked together and they spoke through the ring. Justan told her the things Yntri had shared with him and she taught him more about her people, their customs and beliefs, as well as the social mistakes he needed to avoid.

That evening they stopped at one of the old caravan campsites, a place where the road and the barrier over it had been widened so that travelers could sleep without clogging the road. Yntri went hunting with Qurl and they came back with several snakes and various rodents for their evening meal. Yntri cleaned their kills and cut them all up to include in a stew. The meal was both flavorful and strange, the various textures of the different meats mixed with a variety of mushrooms and roots the elf had collected along the way.

Once again Sir Hilt refused to let Justan take a turn at watch, but he didn’t mind so much because he had work to do. He laid down a bit earlier than usual and cleared his mind. He slid into the cloudy whiteness of the bond and reached for Ma’am.

He touched their communication point. The bow was there, radiating the same eagerness for battle as usual. Now what to do? Yntri hadn’t given him specific instructions. He decided to try and speak with her.

Hello
? he sent. Justan paused. How should he introduce himself to the tree? With his bonded, he used his real name, but the culture of Malaroo’s people seemed so formal.
This is Sir Edge. I wish to commune with you
?

He felt ridiculous saying it that way, but there was a response. The eagerness intensified. He was confused for a moment, but then he realized that the eagerness wasn’t the desire of a weapon to be used, like with Rage. This was an invitation; a desire to speak. But what should he say?

Justan asked his bow what he needed to do, but Ma’am didn’t give a specific answer. There was just an increased sense of inviting. The feeling brought a memory to his mind. It was during his first year of Training School. He had been so absorbed in his work that he hadn’t been home to see his parents in over a month. He finally came home the day of the winter solstice celebration and his mother had answered the door, her face beaming as she ushered him inside for a hug. That’s what he was feeling now.

Justan reached his thoughts through the connection in the way he would when he needed to see inside his bonded for healing. The bond turned grey around him and he saw the life force of the bow. It had a pulsing flow to it and a vague sort of intelligence. The cells in it were somewhat akin to Gwyrtha’s in that they were malleable, but its structure was far more stable.

Justan tried to speak with the bow again, but soon understood that the eagerness he sensed wasn’t coming from Ma’am herself. Within his bow was another connection. It was small, but Justan found it, the link from the bow to the tree. He reached through this link hesitantly, unsure what he would find.