The Tree

The time has come, my friends, for the second excerpt of Cedwig: People in the Vines! 

I hope that you enjoy it, and that you'll stick around for more news about the book! I'm so excited to release this novel, and I cannot wait for all of you to read it! :-D 

[love]

{Rani Divine}

~

Cedwig: People in the Vines

The sky above us was already darkening, the sun descending toward the horizon. Even though I’d been out in the forest during the night, in the company of my people, I somehow felt that there might actually be dangers in these woods. I knew that Eirian would keep me safe, that he would prevent any harm from coming to me, that he would make sure everything went according to plan. But no matter how hard I tried to keep it out, my humanity crept back in. I was still one of them, no matter what. It would take time to shake the ways of my past from my mind.

“Where are we going?” I whispered. I didn’t know why I whispered, but it seemed like the right thing to do.

“Soon,” he replied, laughing quietly.

We walked on the ground through the trees and vines, Eirian stopping to help me when the brambles were too high for me to climb over on my own. He smiled whenever he looked into my eyes, and he always made sure that I wasn’t too tired to continue.

I wanted to walk. I wanted to experience as much of this place as I could in the time that I had. There was no telling how long it would last. I didn’t know what Tzeira would do when the humans began the attack. Now that I’d left them, I had no doubt Jonas would try to start the battle even sooner. He wanted this place to belong to him and only him. These creatures, these beings, did not fit into his plan for the future. I may have accelerated his plans, if only because of Jonas’s anger.

When the sky turned completely dark, Eirian stopped. There was no light filtering down through the trees, and even Eirian became impossible to see. It didn’t help that his skin darkened in the fading light, as he had explained earlier. Their bodies were designed to camouflage into the forest itself, so when the forest darkened, they darkened as well.

“Do not speak until I tell you,” he whispered.

I didn’t reply. I nodded, though I wasn’t certain that he could even see me.

He lifted a curtain—of what, I didn’t know—and light flooded the area.

Eirian led me into what I at first thought was a large cave, but soon realized couldn’t be. I saw stars hovering above us, twinkling bright in the sky. Bright blue vines hung from every branch in the massive tree before us. The vines thrummed with life, beating as though they had a heart of their own. Veins of white light continually traveled down the vines, over and over, as a living entity surviving within the vines themselves. The thrumming echoed in my mind, filling my heart until my body echoed the sound. It sounded at the same time as my own heartbeat, and I lifted my hand to cover my mouth, preventing myself from crying out.

What was this place?

“Coed o eneidiau, clyw fy ngweddi,” Eirian said. I didn’t understand the words, but somehow I knew what he was saying. He was speaking to the tree, asking it to heed his words. “Yr wyf yn dod â'r un a ddewiswyd i chi,” he continued. He released my hand and stepped closer to the tree, his eyes staring reverently up toward it. “Hi yw y Vartes. Mae hi'n un ohonom.” He dropped to one knee, dipping his head toward the ground. “Let her hear,” he breathed. But the words were still not in basic, even though I now found myself able to understand. “Gadewch ei clywed.”

Eirian got to his feet and turned to face me. “What do you hear?” he asked, still in the tongue of the Cedwig. “Beth ydych chi'n ei glywed?”

“I hear you,” I whispered under my breath, hoping that I was now allowed to speak.

He smiled brightly and beckoned me closer, under the branches of the giant tree.

My body trembled slightly, still beating in time with the thrumming of the vines. I stopped when I stood beside Eirian, my hand automatically slipping within his. I didn’t know what it was about this place, but it made me afraid. It wasn’t that I feared for my life, or that I thought something bad was coming, it was that this place seemed so unlike anything I had ever seen or imagined, and was so alive. The very ground beat with raw power, the whole world echoing with the might of the Vartes, which I assumed was the power of this place. But I didn’t understand what it was.

Eirian reached up and took hold of one of the vines, plucking it from its place in the air and resting it within my hand. “What do you hear?” he asked, in basic.

I closed my eyes and listened. Within my very mind, I heard thousands of voices, voices of Cedwig and of humans, of what I somehow knew to be other Dewin. They all spoke to me, to each other, each of them with their own unique voices, their own unique words.

When my eyes reopened, they looked straight into Eirian’s. “What is this place?” I breathed.

“It is the tree of souls,” he whispered, taking the vine from me. “The Cedwig have been chosen to protect it, to keep it from all prying eyes. Only those chosen by the witch may enter this place, to listen to the voices of the dead.” He laced his fingers with mine, his eyes staring deeply into my eyes. “What you heard are the voices of those who have gone into the arms of the Vartes, those who no longer step foot upon this world.”

“The dead?” A chill went down my spine.

He smiled brightly. “Those who have been saved.” He nodded. “Those who the evil one and his dominion have not taken from the arms of the creator.” His eyes shifted back up to the sky, to the branches that filled the air, each one covered in dozens and dozens of blue-lit vines. “Those who follow the paths set before them, as you will do.”

We only stayed there a moment more, both of us staring up into the sky. I tried to see the stars beyond the light of the vines, but beneath the tree the thrums shone so brightly that I could see nothing but them. As I looked toward the sky, I let his words sink in. Somehow, they already knew what I would do.

I made note to ask Eirian about it later—this didn’t seem like the time or place.

“We cannot stay,” he whispered at last. “The Vartes will not allow it.” He turned and led me back toward the wall of vines, my eyes all the while staring up at the sky. 

Copyright: RAD Writing, 2016