Phoryne Rose's Arc

Chapter 9 of 5

Phoryne walked deeper into the forest behind Taio. Oaks, willows, and pale birches crowded close. She waited for the pull inside her, the tug that always dragged her toward Alaric's grounds. She felt nothing. For the first time in weeks, the binding was silent. Her hand went to her scarred thumb. "I can't feel it," she said. "The pull. It's gone." Taio stopped beside an old oak with a broad crown. Koot still rode his shoulder, arms folded, watching. "My domain hides you," the tree god said. His voice was low, like a note under the roots. "No hunter's magic reaches through my trees. Here you are lost to him." He set a hand on the oak's bark. Leaves turned toward him like faces. "But I have not yet said you may take the bloom." Phoryne's heart jumped. Taio's green eyes fixed on her at once. "Your heart moved," he said. "I hear the faintest beat. You cannot lie to me here." He was calm, not angry. "So do not try. Why should I give a soul-flower to a stranger?" Koot shifted on his shoulder. "Told you he'd do this," she muttered. Phoryne stood still. She could not hide a flutter, so she gave him the truth. "I stole a cutting from a walled garden. I wanted to grow one white rose at my home. That's all." Her voice shook. "It was a trap. The rose is fed by souls. One drop of my blood bound me to its master. Now he can find me anywhere. I left my home to run from him." Taio listened. The forest listened with him. "I don't want to hurt anyone," Phoryne said. "I only wanted something beautiful. The bloom is the one thing that can cut the tie for good. Not hide it. Break it." The tree god watched her heartbeat, not her face. She let it race. She let him hear how much she wanted this. "You feel no false note," she said. "Because there isn't one." A long silence. Wind moved the leaves. Then Taio nodded once, slow. "True," he said. "Your heart holds no lie." He lifted his hand from the oak. "I will let you seek the bloom. But it does not grow where I can reach it. It grows at the still heart of my forest, past the water. The way is guarded." His green eyes held hers. "You must walk it alone. I cannot carry you there. And what guards it will test you as I could not." Koot's wings snapped. "Alone? Taio, she'll die in there." "She may," the tree god said. "Or she may reach it." Phoryne looked at the trees ahead, dark and endless. The pull was gone. Only the bloom remained, deep in the guarded heart. She wrapped her hand around her scar. "Then show me where to start," she said. Taio pointed past the oak, toward the sound of water. “ You go when you are ready, not before. The forest and I shall guard you, hide you until you are ready.” His voice steady “You and M’Kaiah will stay with me.” “It’s KOOOOOTTTT!!!!!” Koot sounded like she could rip his head off. I was sure she would not succeed.