Elisset The Gold

Chapter 3

"We must move. Deeper into the forest this time. Much deeper." Elisset whispered to her aunt and the hunter as the three of them lay atop of the cliff, looking down at the cave they had called home for the last months as the hounds sent to seek them out sniffed around the entrance. Horns blared in the trees below them.

"I am not familiar with the deepest reaches of the forest." The hunter whispered. "I cannot be your guide."

"Then I will lead us. I have the blood of the forest runs in my veins. It will not cause us harm." Elisset replied.

"We must take caution, Elisset. The dark of the forest can be a shroud or a cloak, it is but a fine thread between the two." Her aunt gripped her forearm as she hissed her words, her fear clear on her face.

She has always been too timid. She would have made a bad queen.

"We go deeper. Now." Elisset commanded before turning away and, crouching low, headed into the treeline and deeper into the forest.

*****

"You have ventured too far. Turn back now, else you will come to harm."

The voice came from the trees around them, a voice that would hurt the ear if it had not been inside their heads.

"Did you hear that?" Her aunt whispered.

"Yes." Elisset replied. The hunter's eyes were wider than she had seen, and his lips had turned white.

"Who are you?" Elisset called out to the trees ahead.

"One who would want you to avoid harm." The voice replied.

"We must run from here, this is an evil place!" The hunter hissed, his hands clasped over his ears.

"Speak aloud to me. I am Queen Elisset of Keritor, descendent of the First Kings, lady of the forest lands, protector of the people, and servant of Verithorn." Did I proclaim too much? Will they know titles? "I ask that you show yourself to me, and speak openly, without magic."

There was a pause, before a tall figure stepped from behind the trunk of an old oak tree, twenty paces in front and to the left of her. The forest people. Standing at nearly eight feet tall, with light brown hair growing in tufts that resembled leaves with streaks of gold flicked throughout, brown skin that seemed to sheen with green in the leaf-dappled light, and strong, thick limbs, Elisset was speechless for a moment.

"Now you see me, Queen Elisset." The figure spoke aloud to her.

Now I see you

"Tell me your name." She demanded, straightening her back and raising her chin slightly.

"Malgoroth'malberifon." He replied, bowing so low that his right hand, which he swung across his body to elaborate the bow, gently brushed the soft moss of the forest floor. "But you may call me Mal."

"Do not think I cannot speak in your own tongue, Malgoroth'malberifon." Elisset replied, enjoying the subtle eyebrow raise of surprise on his face. "I am not completely ignorant of the forest peoples."

"So it would seem, Queen Elisset." He walked slowly towards the party, keeping enough distance to avoid harm from any sudden blade. As he neared, he looked down at her aunt and the hunter behind Elisset.

"And who are these people?" He asked dismissively.

"She is my aunt, a princess. He is a hunter."

"And what do they know of us?"

"I know noth-"

"I was not talking to you!" Mal commanded the hunter into silence.

"The hunter knows little. My aunt knows as much as I do. We are descended from your people." If you bring them to harm, I will curse you and burn down the forests.

"You are descended from the forest people?" He looked her up and down. "I see it, a little. You are tall for one of the plains. Over six feet, which is rare for the childbearing of your kind. Your skin is also purer, not as tainted as the others. But I do not see it in your aunt."

"My grandmother, Queen Flaeda, was married to one of the forest. He was a prince of your kind."

"A prince? Ha!" Mal laughed. "He was no prince. An exile, maybe. It is forbidden for us to consort with the people of the plains. And there is no blood of the forest in her." He pointed at her aunt.

"Impossible! She is born of the same blood as my mother, and has the same blood of the forest that is in me."

Mal looked her aunt up and down once more, taking closer inspection, before shaking his head gently.

"No, I don't know what blood is in her, but there is none of the forest."

What does he mean? How can he know? If he hurts her I will pull him limb from limb when I sit on the Throne of Vines.

"The seed might be sown but the plant might not bear fruit."

"She is under my protection, as one of the forest. The hunter too."

Mal looked at her for a moment, and she looked back, keeping her face firm, showing no weakness despite her apparent desperate situation.

"Very well." Was all he said after a long moment. Elisset allowed herself to breathe again as Mal turned away and walked between the trees, ducking to pass under a low limb.

"You are not free to leave, Queen Elisset. You must follow me." The voice in her head returned as Mal passed out of sight.