We•Will•Rise

Chapter Sixteen

After three days and a few hours, we made it past Ferway and the emptiness beyond it. The ride was tedious, especially since Nikolai's "shortcut" added a few extra hours of riding around the city and down an overgrown trail that left us dodging fallen branches every few steps. But it was worth not facing anymore possible confrontation so no one complained. Through it all our nights consisted of quick meals, exhausted silence and little sleep while the days were filled with small talk as we trudged on through both forest and plains. It isn't until the fourth morning that we finally make it to Vlaria, only an hour or so after we had saddled back up from the night before.
I knew Vlaria was a small town, but still I'm stunned by how tiny and bare it actually is once we are inside its perimeter. There are so few houses, run down ones that look put together in haste with vines that creep up the sides and across the roofs while the wood grows mold on its aging boards. There's only one main road that travels from one end of the town to the other, the rest are all dirt paths made from years of use that zig-zag around the houses in no particular pattern. But other than the homes, there are no other signs of people inhabiting this place. No children run and play, no people outside working, not a soul in sight besides our group and the horses we rode in on. It literally looks deserted.
"Where is everyone?" I ask, my voice ear splittingly loud in the silence.
"The town is abandoned." Garreth's answer is just as disturbingly noisy as mine.
"Has it always been this way?" I wonder, my gaze exploring the decaying homes. They look as if they haven't been occupied in years, long ago left to rot by their owners.
"No, it hasn't," Nikolai speaks this time, "But the Weeping Wood has grown like mold. It's been pushing people back for years, nearly taking over the whole town.  The town's people used to try to build as it would grow, but it got to be too much so people left. That's why there are no roads or nice homes. Most of it's been swallowed by the Wood."
Grown? How weird. The way he says it makes it seem unnatural, almost like it's a living thing that expanded all at once instead of trees sprouting and growing like they normally do. But as we ride further into the town, I see what he means. The foliage grows dense as the weeping trees creep deep into the town, some even growing straight through homes and jutting out from the roofs. Houses become enveloped in the vines and leaves while trees sprout in sporadic places around them, seeming to have popped up like they were dropped there from the sky. The smell of their sour sap that gives them their name is strong in the air, burning my nostrils enough to make me put my shirt over my nose. I can see the poisonous substance dripping down the barks of the trees in thick droplets, falling to the grassless ground. Underneath the trees is just dirt and the road that we're on, no grass or weeds grow under the canopy because the sap that leaks into the soil kills anything that should grow from it.
"How much further until we reach Ingrav?" I ask after a few moments, careful to keep my legs tight against the horse so they don't brush up against the sap-coated trunk of the trees. They grow thicker the deeper we get, the trail becoming so narrow we have to walk in a single file line and the buggy nearly scrapes against every tree. There are still houses here, ones that used to be nice before the Wood cracked through the foundation and swallowed them whole.
    "Maybe an hour or so, hard to tell. None of us have ever been to Vlaria," Ricket says from behind me. I glance back to see him give me a shrug. That's when I see it, a shadow fleeting quickly through the trees. Ricket must see the look on my face because he cranes his neck to see behind him with a frown. "What?" He looks back at me with a raised eyebrow.
    I shake my head. "I thought I saw something." I say, searching the area for the shadow.
    "Likely a spirit," the Captain's voice calls from in front of me. That makes me turn back around, leaning to the side to see past Nikolai where Xanvier sits in the buggy. He's facing me with a smirk, "The Weeping Wood isn't just known for its burning sap, you know."
    "Aye," one of his crewmates says—this one being Tomsin if I'm not mistaken—as he looks at Xanvier. "Spirits do roam these parts, and legend says for every person that dies a tree sprouts from the ground, an anchor that keeps the spirits from leaving."
    "Nonsense," Orian huffs, turning around in the buggy to glare at them, "When you die you go to the After, not the Weeping Wood. Don't scare the girl."
    "Aye, if you don't have any regrets or burdens from life before. This is a place for those that refuse to move on," The other pirate says, Tig I believe they called him.
    I open my mouth to refute them when a low sobbing catches my attention. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge and my blood drains from my face. "Do you guys hear that?" I whisper, the sound growing louder as we get deeper into the Wood. My horse's ears pin themselves to its head and it lets out a deep snort. The other horses start to get antsy, pawing at the dirt and stopping in their tracks, refusing to go further as their heads swivel in every direction, scanning for danger with their wide eyes.
"We're not alone," Nikolai whispers, his hand going to the hilt of his sword. I pull my dagger out as well, gripping it with white knuckles. The sobbing continues as the horses start neighing in distress, pawing at the ground and flinching with every movement. The terrible crying continues, echoing around the trees like it's everywhere at once, taking residence in no particular place.
"What the. . . " Garreth trails off as the crying comes to an abrupt stop. I stiffen in response, even my horse seems to tense underneath me. That's when they appear, dozens of them in the trees, all silhouettes of people standing just out of reach in the Wood. Their forms are blurred out and their bodies are grey and see-through, showing the trees off through them. They look like shadows carved into a human body, and all of them stand eerily still around us. The entire group sits frozen on the horses, and even the mounts are tense and still at the sight. Then the sobbing starts again, amplified times a hundred, loud enough to make me slap our palms against our ears.
The shadows start forward,     walking in a glitchy motion that makes a primal fear knot my belly. The horses startle and take off through the Wood without encouragement, running with a break-neck speed as they charge down the path. I cling to my mount, my entire body nearly wrapped around its neck as I bounce ferociously in my saddle. The shadow beings line either side of the trees, their bodies becoming a hazy blur through the speed of the horses. They watch as we flee, the sobbing becoming distant as the trees grow even denser through the Wood the deeper we get.
We come lurching to a sudden stop, my head smacking into the neck of the horse. I sit back with a hiss, clutching my bruised noise as Garreth curses from the front. The horses start to back up, but when I turn I only see the shadow beings packing the space behind Ricket. I desperately yank my horse to a stop and so does Ricket, glancing from me to behind him with white eyes.
We're surrounded.
Nikolai unsheaths his sword and so does the others, everyone tense as we all stare at the figures in our midst. The pirates stand on the buggy, looming over the rest of us and looking across the trees.
"They're everywhere," Xanvier says, sounding grim.
"What do you suppose they want?" I whisper, scared my voice will doom us all. Xanvier shrugs in response.
"Can't we just, I don't know, go right through them?" Ricket asks, "I can see through them. What harm could they possibly do?" He says, sounding like he's trying to convince himself the situation isn't as dire as we think it is. He has a point, but I sure didn't want to be the one to test it out and by the look on Garreth's face, he doesn't either.
Soft whispers lift up from the spirits, but they make no move towards us. At first, they're undecipherable, just a tangled mess of words. But then one, clear as day, stands out from the rest: they await you. It's repeated several times through the mess of whispers until, all at once, that's the only thing being said. It's like a whispered chant through the spirits, rising in frequency as they simultaneously take a step towards us. My horse throws its head back and paws at the ground and the others show equal signs of restlessness, but they make no move to run. One of the shadow figures to my right steps towards me, standing so close I can see the barely visible detail of the facial features it once had.
They await you, girl touched by Gods, the savior of them all. Beware the eye for it tells stories untold, beware the staff for it shows lies unfold, and step through the Weeping Wood into your destiny to learn the times of old. The words reverberate through my head, as if the spirit is speaking to me through its mind. I lean back in my chair as the shadow steps through the horse and me, passing like we aren't two solid things standing in the path. I feel a chill as its body goes through mine, and a sudden wave of hot sorrow leaves me gasping against the sudden ache in my chest. But as soon as it had come, it starts to disappear, just like the spirit. The rest of them surrounding us go quiet, no longer chanting the same phrase. They start to back away all at once before turning and disappearing back into the Wood. The horses seem to relax in their absence, the whites of their eyes no longer showing like beacons against the black of their iris.
"What the bleeding Gods was that?" Garreth says breathlessly after a moment of silence, his mouth gaping as he looks from the Woods to me. I still feel the tinge of sorrow and lingering cold in my bones from the spirit, leaving me struggling to catch my bearings.
"What did it say to you?" Captain Xanvier says, watching me with curious eyes. The others stare at me as well like I went and grew two more heads. I repeat the phrases the spirit told me to them, a shiver running up my spine.
"That's it?" Orian asks with a frown, "They scared the life out of us just for that? What does it even mean?"
    I shrug, just as confused myself. "I suppose we'll find out."
    "Let's go before they decide to come back," Ricket says with a shudder, "I don't much like being the last one back here."
    Garreth nods his head in response and turns back around in his horse, leading it down the path once again. We all follow, keeping a close eye on the Wood around us in case anything else in the trees tries to surprise us. But we make it through the Wood without any more trouble, breaking out from under the canopy of the trees all with a sigh of relief. The Weeping Wood seems to end without any warning, the trees, dirt, and man-made path come to a sudden stop and a sea of long, yellowed grass replaces it. The grass reaches up to the horse's shoulder, brushing against my pant's leg and obscuring any nasties that could be lurking within it. I turn back to the Wood, taking in the abrupt end to the weeping trees and the road underneath. I try to ignore the fact that we'll have to pass through there again, but a shudder crawls up my spine at the thought anyway.
    I twist back around in the saddle to take in the looming Sanctum. It's a cave that sits on a narrow cliff overlooking the Sprita Sea, with two large towers on either side of the cave's mouth adorned with massive lanterns at the top to light up the opening in the dark. It's an otherworldly looking place just from the outside, like something a deadly beast would call home. And to think the Sanctum has existed for millennia, predating the kingdom of Adonia, is mind-blowing. The beings that reside in the cavern have existed since the dawn of time, since the birth of the Primordial Gods. With them I will find my answers, and because of them I will bring down the vamphir, for once and for all.