The twelve rode in haste from Torin’s Vale, and now lay hidden on a ridge overlooking the main forest road. The unicorns grazed in a thicket out of sight.
“It is worse than I feared,” Kaliam whispered.
“How many?” asked Nock.
“See for yourself, but stay low. They will not see you from the ground at this distance, but if the sun be allowed to glint off of exposed armor, they may.”
Nock, Aelic, Mallik, and Antoinette crawled up the ridge and peered over the edge.
A seemingly endless river of dark soldiers flowed into the forest.
“Three legions there at least!” Mallik quietly exclaimed.
“At least,” Kaliam agreed. “And more on the road ahead concealed by the woods.”
Nock slid down next to Kaliam. “Kaliam, Paragor is set to invade my homeland! My people!”
“It seems so,” Kaliam said. “Though I did not see their war engines or their catapults. There may be some hope in that. Tobias, Gabriel?”
Gabriel the wise and Tobias the pathfinder looked over the ridge.
“I would say four legions,” Tobias said. “For if you look closely, you can see that the heralds are just entering the tree line. Given the timing of the scout we encountered at Torin’s Vale, I cannot believe that more than a rank has passed under the cover of the trees before now.”
“I agree,” said Sir Gabriel. “And take hope, Master Archer, I do not believe they will invade Yewland.”
“How can you tell?” Nock asked, eager to believe.
Sir Gabriel stroked his long beard. “As Kaliam pointed out, they have no war machines. And if you look closely, there are very few mounted soldiers. Even their pace is telling. They are moving slowly, deliberately. There would be no element of surprise at that rate. Your kinsmen would know they were coming long before they attacked.”
“Why, then, would such a force be traveling to Yewland?” Kaliam asked.
“It looks like a military escort to me,” Tobias said.
Mallik looked from face to face, confused. “But who would demand an escort of such size and grandeur?” He blinked a few times, turning his head back and forth. Then he became very still.
Antoinette suddenly felt very afraid.
“But why would he go to Yewland?” Sir Oswyn asked.
Sir Gabriel drew a scroll from his belt and wrung it slowly in his hands. “He was invited.”
“Invited?” Nock scowled. “My kin would never invite The Betrayer to cross Yewland’s borders.”
“I agree,” said Kaliam. “Many long years has Yewland been allied with the Kingdom of Alleble. Many who dwell in Yewland have eyes that glint blue and matching purity in their hearts. I do not believe Queen Illaria would welcome Paragor.”
“She might welcome his gold,” said Tobias.
Nock bit his tongue.
“No,” Kaliam argued. “In spite of her love of things that glitter, Queen Illaria is too shrewd and far too proud to allow Yewland to fall under the harsh yoke of The Betrayer. She would return Yewland to an independent province as it was before.”
“But she might allow him passage,” Sir Gabriel said.
Nock looked away, exhaled a breath of complaint, and then clambered back up the ridge to look again upon the advancing army. Kaliam stood in silence.
“Why do you debate?” Mallik asked, turning his smoldering eyes to his troubled commander. “Given the new developments, there can be only one course of action. Attack! Attack immediately, I say.”
Antoinette and the others could not believe their ears.
“If The Betrayer is there among his festering troops, let him meet the business end of my hammer, and we can be done with this war once and for all.”
Tobias snorted out a laugh. “Right, Sir Mallik. Twelve knights against four legions—those are rather steep odds, would you not say?”
“That cannot be more than a thousand soldiers for each of us,” Mallik replied. “I have seen worse!”
“And to think I was to be the jester on this journey!” Sir Oswyn said. He smacked Mallik on the shoulder. “You make me smile, my hammer-wielding friend, in the face of a very grim discovery.”
“Mallik is correct in one respect,” Sir Gabriel said. “There really is only one course of action. We must return to Alleble. Return in haste to seek the King’s will. Perhaps our enemy, in leaving his dark strongholds, has put his neck out too far. This may be the occasion for King Eliam to send forth the full might of his armies, led, I am certain, by Mallik’s hammer and Sir Rogan’s sharp axe.”
Mallik grinned. “What say you to that, Kaliam?”
Kaliam took a deep breath as if preparing to plunge into cold water. “I say there is wisdom in what we have heard. Wise guesses to be sure, but guesses nonetheless. We do not know for certain if Paragor leads this force in person. We do not know the intent of this huge army. Certainly there are enough soldiers to invade, but the manner of their approach does indeed suggest otherwise. If not to conquer . . . what then? Could it be an escort? If it is, then what is their destination? Would Paragor need a force this big for a diplomatic mission to Yewland? Nay, my heart implores me that there is something far more wicked afoot. To return to Alleble, albeit swiftly, may mean that we never discover the answer to this dark riddle.”
“I am with you,” Farix agreed. He sat cross-legged with his hands hidden in the wide sleeves of his surcoat. “In my mind it is like the calm before a dreadful storm. We must find out where that army is going and what purpose it hides.”
Antoinette flinched. A sudden image of the open tomb flashed in her mind.
“Are you all right?” Aelic asked. She shook her head dismissively.
“Therein lies my struggle,” Kaliam said. “How might we discover the enemy’s plans? The main road is closed to us now—save perhaps if we delay until the enemy’s untold thousands pass under the boughs, and then follow in what stealth we can manage. If we wait on the other side of Forest Road, things may go ill for Yewland. If only we had dragon steeds, we could fly to Yewland.”
They all became silent. An answer was there, looming in the midst of them, but no one wished to make it known. Finally, Antoinette spoke up. “Couldn’t we cut through the Blackwood?”
Tal, Tobias, and Nock wanted nothing to do with the Blackwood. Lady Merewen was the only one immediately willing. “There can be nothing worse among the trees,” she had said, “than the horrors of Paragory.” The others agreed only if Kaliam was convinced it was the only way. He was.
And so the twelve rode their unicorns at top speed to the northern fringe of the forest where Nock thought he remembered the location of an ancient path. He searched in vain at the edge of the forest, but the groundcover was thick and widespread.
“Ha, here it is at last!” he announced. “Come, it was well hidden, but now that I have found it, I will not lose it again!”
The twelve left the sunshine and slowly disappeared under the forest’s massive boughs. Tree limbs, lush with foliage, flexed as the knights passed, and sprang back behind them as if a living door had closed. The Knights of Alleble were immediately surrounded by the glad green tones of living things: shrubs, ferns, sprawling canopy trees, and climbing vines.
Small golden insects teemed in the air and took no notice of the travelers. The air smelled of lilac and honeysuckle. There was also the music of the forest: the rustle of leaves in the wind, the happy chirruping of birds, and an odd, warbling trill sound that reminded Antoinette of the spring peeper frogs back home.
“This doesn’t seem so bad,” Antoinette said. The unicorns too seemed quite comfortable. They bobbed their heads and were allowed to occasionally munch leaves from protruding branches.
“Verily,” replied Sir Oswyn, “nothing stirs my soul like a pleasant walk in the woods. Why, I feel almost merry!” And, in a flash, he fished out his lute and began a happy little melody.
Of all the forest creatures that dwell under forest eaves, Perched upon the branches or feasting on its leaves, There lives a mighty mite more mighty than them all. It does not claw or scratch and stands only one inch tall.
It will not strangle like a serpent or stalk you like a cat. It does not beat you like a bugbear or bite you like a bat. It cannot crush its prey or maim it or drop it down a hole. It has no deadly poison but is as deadly as a troll.
So what is this fell and mighty beast? And what terror does it hold That rules the sprawling forest and makes faint hearts of the bold? Why, it is the purple spotted meep frog, a truly perilous pest. And lest you laugh, I promise it is more fearsome than the rest.
For doughty knight may face a panther or the fiery dragon slay, But if he sees the purple meep, he’ll clutch his ears and run away. For one little meeper is bad enough, its meeping song annoys. But when there are ten thousand, they will drive you mad with noise!
And so Oswyn’s song went on, lifting the spirits of the team. But Nock was pensive. “I thought this was to be a beastly place,” said Mallik, and he spurred his unicorn to trot next to Nock’s. “Full of nasty creatures and pitfalls—was not that what you said, Nock my friend?”
“The reason you still feel glad,” said Nock, “is that we are not yet in the Blackwood.”
“What?” said several of the knights in unison. Sir Oswyn’s song ended abruptly.
“There is an apron of undefiled forest several leagues deep around the Blackwood,” Nock explained. “That is where we are now. Alas that the Blackwood was once teeming like this and pure.”
“Well, how will we know, then?” Aelic asked. “How will we know when we enter the Blackwood?”
“You will know, Sir Aelic, because the unicorns we ride will halt and refuse to go another step. You will know when the sounds of living things go dreadfully quiet. And you will know when the only trees you see are massive, dark, and brooding. Then you will know that we draw near to the real Blackwood.”
Mallik’s mustache twitched, and he let his unicorn drop back a few paces.
“Come, Knights of Alleble,” said Kaliam. “It is nearly midday. We must quicken our pace. I for one do not wish to walk through the Blackwood at night.”
They rode for hours as quickly as their surefooted steeds could bear them on the ancient path, broken and strewn with root and vine. Though the forest was still alive with green leaves and golden light, the twelve spoke very little, for each was busy with his own thoughts. And Sir Oswyn’s lute stayed securely on his back.
Antoinette was nibbling at a crust of bread when they came to a strange sight. The bread dropped from her hands. Row upon row of tall trees stood before them, but they were without bark and bone white. And the groundcover died off as if fire had swept through a wide swatch of the forest.
“Beneath the ground,” Nock said in a quiet voice, “the roots of the Blackwood stretch out to protect their realm. They will suffer no other living plant to pollute their soil.”
The unicorns ground their teeth. Some of them reared. The twelve tried in vain to calm them, to urge them forward. “They will not pass this skeleton hedge of dead trees,” Nock said. “To force them into the black forest beyond would drive them mad.”
“We must dismount!” Kaliam commanded. “Our steeds have borne us well, but Nock is right. They will not enter the Blackwood. Take whatever food provisions you can carry and the waterskins. Leave spare garments and other comforts behind. We can purchase such necessities in Yewland.”
“What will happen to the unicorns?” Antoinette asked. She stroked Rael’s neck affectionately.
“They are clever beasts,” answered Kaliam. “They will find their way back to Alleble. They will be far safer on their journey, I fear, than we will be on ours.”
