Vivienne Ashford's Arc

Chapter 6 of 8

Vivienne ran straight through the trees, and the plan began to fail. Voices rose to her left, then to her right. Kane's soldiers were not chasing her back. They were spreading wide, calling out in the same flat rhythm, closing like a net. If she held this line, they would meet ahead of her and box her in. The dragon flew low at her shoulder. The spined creature kept pace on the ground. Vivienne slowed and listened. The blue lights on the soldiers' chestplates blinked between the trunks on both sides. She counted the gaps between the voices. The net had a seam, but only for a moment. A point of light dropped from the branches above her. It was no soldier's lamp. A tiny figure hovered before her face, no taller than her hand, with wings that shimmered like wet glass. The little fairy did not speak. She darted three feet to the right, stopped, and waited. Then she darted again, the same way. Vivienne understood. The fairy was showing her a path. She did not trust it, but she trusted the closing net less. She turned and followed the light. The dragon and the creature came after her. The fairy led them down into a fold of ground the soldiers could not see. Wet leaves swallowed Vivienne's steps. To her right, a soldier crashed past, so close she smelled oil on his armor. He did not turn his head. The fairy's glow dimmed as he neared, then brightened once he passed. They climbed a low bank and reached a wall of broad leaves and thick vines. Vivienne stopped cold. She knew this shape. It was a living plant grown into the form of a mansion, its layered green walls rising into the dark, its columns woven from vines. Another fortress like the one she had burned. The fairy flew straight for its wide door and hovered there, waiting. Behind her, the voices found the seam. A shout went up. The net had closed on empty ground, and now the soldiers turned inward, hunting for her trail. Their boots pounded back through the trees. Vivienne had one choice. The open forest offered nothing but the net. The living mansion offered walls, doors, and dark rooms she could lose herself in. She had escaped one plant prison. Now she would run into another to save her life. She went through the door. The dragon and the creature slipped in behind her. The fairy's light led the way down a long green hall. Behind them, the leafy door drew its vines across the gap and sealed shut. Vivienne stood in the dark, breathing hard. Kane's soldiers could not see her now. But she had traded the open forest for a maze of living walls, and she did not know if this fortress would let her out again.