Grand Game 578: I Alone Suffice

Note from Tom: One more to go after this!
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The three harbingers were less than halfway across the lake when I felt a change in the void tree’s regard. I stiffened, immediately going to full alertness. Was another attacking forthcoming? Almost certainly.

“Ghost, ready yourself. We might need to—”

“YOU… CANNOT… WIN… WOLFLING.”

For a moment, I was struck speechless. The mindvoice was the tree’s. It—no, he, there had been a definite masculine undertone to the voice—was speaking to me, something I’d not been expecting at all. 

No one—not the huntmistress, not Adriel, and not Ceruvax—had hinted that the trees were capable of speech.

“NOTHING… TO… SAY?”

Very carefully, I sat down on my haunches and took a moment to compose myself. The tree was speaking to me—why? 

Was this some sort of trick? Very possibly. 

Did I dare speak back to it? No. 

I was not about to let a powerful psionic—and a hostile one at that—anywhere close to my thoughts. “Ghost, stay alert, and don’t take your eyes off those harbingers. The tree is speaking to me, but it’s likely a trick, some sort of attempt to distract or deceive.”

“I’ll watch them, Prime,” she promised.

“SCARED… WOLFLING?”

“YOU… SHOULD… BE.”

I wouldn’t risk speaking mind-to-mind with the tree, but perhaps there was another way I could converse with it. “I am not afraid,” I shouted, using ventro to project my voice as loudly and as far across the water as I could—I couldn’t very well speak normally in my current form. “I have no reason to be. We’re winning.”

Around the corner of my eye, I saw the harbingers freeze, but only for a moment. A second later, they resumed their painstaking wade through the lake. But it was anyone’s guess whether the void tree himself would be able to hear—or even understand—my words.

“HA… HA… HA… IT SPEAKS.”

I said nothing, seeing no reason to respond to the insult.

A pause.

“YOU… ARE… NOT… WINNING.”

“We are,” I shouted back calmly. “Your nest is destroyed, and soon, every naga and serpent under your command will be too.”

“HOW… LITTLE… YOU… UNDERSTAND.... WOLFLING. THEY… COUNT… FOR… NOTHING. I… ALONE… SUFFICE.”

“You alone?” I mocked. “Is that why you summoned your dogs to hunt me down?

“MY… DOGS? I… COMMAND… NO— AH… YOU… MEAN… THE… FAVORED. BUT… YOU… ARE… MISTAKEN. THEY… ARE… NOT… MINE. I… DID… NOT… CALL… THEM.” 

My eyes narrowed. The favored? Was the void tree referring to the harbingers? Almost certainly. But what did the void tree mean when he said he did not call them? Was he lying? Why lie about something as trivial as that, though?

“MY… CREATIONS… ARE… SAFE.”

“Your creations?” I asked, hiding my confusion. What was the void tree on about now? “What would those be?”

But either the void tree did not hear my question or chose to ignore it.

“YOU… WILL… NOT… GET… THEM. THEY… ARE… SAFE… BEHIND… THE… DOOR.” 

Door?

“HOW… DID… YOU… LOCK… IT?”

Creations? Door? Lock? 

I was growing more puzzled by the second. What door was the void tree talking about, and how was it locked? As for, its creations, I had no—

My racing thoughts ground to a halt. Unless… 

“By creations, do you mean the nagas?” I yelled. It was a guess—one inspired by intuition, but still only a guess.

No response.

“The giant snakes, I mean.”

“THEY… ARE… BEAUTIFUL… ARE… THEY… NOT?”

So. The void tree did mean the nagas—and the implications of that were startling. 

If the void tree was telling the truth, if his words could be believed, the ‘door’ had to be the rift, and the ‘lock’… that had to be the brotherhood’s barrier dome spell.

For some reason, the stygian Power seemed to believe the nagas, his ‘creations’—and what do I make of that?—were safe on the other side of the rift, something that was patently not true.

And the only reason for the void tree to believe that…

Was if the brotherhood’s spell was doing more than stopping the stygians from traversing the rift. It had to be also preventing them from communicating across it too. In which case, the stygian Power’s claim about not summoning the harbingers also made sense. He would have had no way to do so.

So, why had the harbingers come?

The mature tree must’ve sent them.

It was the only thing that made sense. The mature tree would have surmised from the brotherhood’s assault on the other side of the rift that the young tree was under attack, and fearing—rightly so—for its fellow, it had sent help.

But reading between the lines, it didn’t appear as if the void tree in this sector cared for the harbingers.

“WOLFLING?”

In fact, it didn’t seem like the young void tree cared for anything but himself and his ‘creations.’ 

“DO… NOT… IGNORE… ME… WOLFLING!”

I opened my mouth to reply, then broke off as I saw Ghost shift. “They’re almost here,” she whispered.

Following the direction of the pyre wolf’s gaze, I saw she was right. The harbingers were only a few dozen yards from the shoreline.

“As enlightening as this conversation has been, I’m afraid, I’m going to have to cut this short,” I told the tree. “It’s time for me to deal with your Favored.”

Not waiting for the Power’s response, Ghost and I withdrew down the hill’s eastern slope and out of his line of sight.

✵ ✵ ✵

Gray, Black, and Blue crossed the final stretch of the lake much quicker than I anticipated. Nevertheless, we were ready for them.

“Restore the shield,” I instructed the moment Blue crested the western rise.

“Acknowledged,” Keros grunted. The windknight was in the cave again with the other forsworn.

A second later, a Game alert flashed for attention.

An Aether Cloaking Device has been placed around this sector. Only designated entities may open portals in this sector and only at allowed locations. 

Blue paused, as did the other two harbingers behind her, and almost in unison, the three raised their heads to stare skyward. I looked, too, but could spot nothing different. Still, it was obvious that even without a Game alert, the three harbingers had sensed the change in the sector.

“Get ready,” I whispered to the others as I stared up at the three harbingers at the top of the hill.

This was a pivotal moment. 

Gray, Black, and Blue had two choices. Retreat to the tree or advance onwards. For many reasons, I couldn’t let them take the first option, and if they showed any hint of venturing down that path, I would have no choice but to spring our trap early.

“What’s the matter?” I taunted, projecting my voice with ventro again. “Afraid?”

Blue’s gaze swapped from the sky to me, but she didn’t immediately respond or advance. “What are you?” she asked, her voice strangely contemplative.

I swished my basilisk tail and tilted my canine head. “Is that not obvious? I am a chimera like you.”

“Liar!” Gray growled.

“You are not one of the Favored,” Black spat. “The Chosen has told us the truth!”

“Favored? Is that what you think we are?” I asked, continuing my pretense. My voice hardened. “We are not that. We are aberrations.”

“You are not one of us,” Blue countered. “You are a fleshling—a soon to be dead one.”

“Then, why do you hesitate?” I challenged. “Come. Kill me.”

Black’s eyes drifted to the still and unmoving Ghost. “Do not think we do not see your pet.”

“She is not hiding,” I replied conversationally.

“Another perversion,” Gray snarled, his eyes also on the pyre wolf.

Blue took a step forward, Black advanced left, and Gray right. They’re going to try and rush us from three sides, I thought.

Ghost rose to her feet, hackles raised, but I didn’t move. The harbingers hadn’t committed yet, and until they did, I wouldn’t either.

Blue raised her right forepaw and, leaving it hanging midair, pinned me with a steely gaze, almost as if she was trying to divine my intent. 

“These harbingers are far too cautious,” I reported across the farspeaker link. “They might not take the bait.”

“We’re ready,” Safyre replied. “Whichever way things go.”

The moment drew out, with Blue staring at me, and me staring back just as unflinchingly. “Come here and face us,” the harbinger said at last.

“Why? Are you afraid to leave your precious Chosen’s sight?” I mocked. 

Black’s eyes drifted past me to the hills at my back. “What is hiding back there?”

“Back where?” I retorted innocently.

It was the wrong response, and I could almost see the decision forming in Blue’s gaze. Damn, she’s going to turn back. “Ghost, get—"

Blue winced. A second later, Gray and Black did too. 

For a moment, their reactions puzzled me, then I spied Gray’s furtive glance over his shoulder.

Ah. They’ve received their marching orders. But what has the tree told them to—

I broke off as, in unison, the three harbingers charged.