The Born Queen - J. Gregory Keyes [137]
And yet in two ways at least, Ehawk’s story agreed with Leshya’s tale of the Vhenkherdh. Both said the Briar King came from it, and both agreed it was the source of life.
Other than that, though, the Watau story was very different from the Sefry’s, and that made him feel suddenly better about the whole thing. He’d learned from Stephen just how twisted time could make the truth; maybe no one, not even the Sarnwood witch, had all the facts. Maybe when he got there, Aspar could find some way to surprise everyone. Come to think of it, he probably knew at least one thing no one except maybe Winna did.
“It’s good to have you back, Ehawk,” he said, patting him on the shoulder.
“’Tis good to be back, master holter.”
Aspar’s improved mood didn’t last long.
Another two days brought them to the Then River, and the land was starting to warn Aspar what to expect on the road ahead.
Green fields gave way to sickly yellow weeds, and the only birds they saw were high overhead. At the banks of the Then, some tough marsh grass still clung to life, just barely.
But across the stream what once had been rich prairie was brittle and brown, dead for a month or more. There was no birdsong, no buzz of crickets, nothing. It was wasteland.
The villages were dead, too. They found no one alive, and the bones that remained were gnawed and crushed as no natural beast could manage.
The next day, the edge of the King’s Forest appeared, and Aspar prepared himself for the worst.
Winna, who hadn’t been talking much to him lately, rode up beside him.
“It’ll be bad, won’t it?” she said.
“Yah.” He already could see how wrong the tree line was.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know how it hurts you.”
“I’m the holter,” he said. “I’m supposed to protect it.”
“You’ve done your best,” she said.
“No,” he replied harshly. “No, I haven’t.”
“Aspar,” she said gently, “you have to talk to me. I need to know why we’re coming here, where everything is dead except for monsters. I trust you, but you usually tell me what’s going on. Fend’s not even trying to catch us, and Emfrith is starting to question our direction, too. He’s wondering what happens when we run out of supplies.”
“Emfrith can ask me himself,” Aspar snapped.
“I don’t think this is about taking me someplace safe,” Winna said.
The geos stung him, but he held his ground against it, because now the only way to convince Winna that they should be doing this entailed telling her part of the truth.
It was such a relief, he almost felt like crying.
“Listen,” he said softly. “I learned some things from the Sarnwood witch, from my trip into the Bairghs. What you see here—what we’ll see ahead—it’s not stopping with the King’s Forest. It’ll keep spreading until everything is dead, until there are no woods or fields anywhere. There’s nowhere I can take you where you and the child will be safe, not for long.”
“What are you telling me?”
“I’m spellin’ that our only chance is to stop this somehow.”
“Stop it?”
He explained in brief about the Vhenkherdh and the possibility of “summoning” a new Briar King. He didn’t tell her how Leshya had come by her knowledge, and of course he made no mention of Fend’s assertion that her unborn child was to be the sacrifice that would save the world. He still wasn’t sure he believed that himself. When he was done, she looked at him strangely.
“What?”
“There’s still something I don’t understand,” she said. “I accept it’s true that there’s no place where this rot won’t eventually reach me. But there are places that will be safe from it for a while longer. The Aspar I know wouldn’t have wanted me along for this…attempt, not in my condition. He would have had Emfrith take me as far from the King’s Forest as possible while he went to fight and maybe die. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m glad you didn’t do that.”
“I think Fend’s after you, too,” he said.
“Then why doesn’t he send an utin for me?”
“The wyver attacked you, remember?”
She nodded uneasily. “Is that the only reason?”
“When I saw Fend last, he told me as much,” Aspar said.
“But why?”
“You were his captive