—My beloved—
Kirisin felt the hair on the back of his neck rise, and he shivered as if chilled through, although the morning was warm and windless.
The Ellcrys was speaking to him. The tree was communicating.
—Why am I forsaken—
Forsaken? He cringed at the rebuke, not understanding the reason for it.
What had he failed to do?
—Pay heed to me. I have not lied. A change is coming to the land. The change will be devastating and inexorable and no one will be spared. All that you know will pass away. If you are to survive, I must survive. If I am to survive, you must help me. Though she chooses not to hear me, you must listen—
The voice was coming from everywhere–from outside Kirisin but from inside, as well. Then he realized that it wasn't an audible voice he was hearing; it was unspoken thoughts projected into his mind, lending those thoughts the weight and substance of spoken words.
Wait a minute. She? Who was 'she?'
—Your order has served me long and well, my beloved, my Chosen. You have stayed at my side since the time of my birthing, since the moment of my inception. I have never wanted. I have never needed. But I want and need now, and you must heed me. You must do as I ask—
Kirisin was listening intently, even as he couldn't quite bring himself to believe that it was real. The Ellcrys never spoke to anyone to save the Chosen, and she only spoke to them once–on the day of their choosing, when she called them by name. That she was communicating with him was mind boggling. What was it she had said? A change in the world? The end of everything they knew?
"What is this change?" he whispered, almost without realizing he had spoken the words.
—Humans and their demons are at war. It is a war that neither will win. It is a war that will destroy them both. But you and I will be destroyed, as well. If we are to survive, we must leave the Cintra. We must travel to a new land, to a new life, where we will find shelter and rebirth—
Was the tree answering him? Had it heard his question? Kirisin tried to decide, and then simply quit thinking about it and said what was on his mind.
"What can we do to help?"
—Take me from the Cintra. Do not uproot me, but carry me away still rooted in my soil. Place me inside a Loden Elfstone, and I will be protected. Use the seeking-Elfstones to find it, the three to find the one. Read your histories. The secret is written down—
Kirisin had no idea how to respond. He knew of Elfstones, for they were a part of Elven history. But the Elves had not possessed one for hundreds of years. No one knew what had become of them.
No one even knew for certain what it was they were supposed to do. They were magic, but their magic was a mystery.
He wanted to ask more. He wanted to know all about the Elf–stones and everything else he had just heard the tree reveal. Mostly, he wanted to hear the tree speak to him again. But he couldn't think what to ask, and before he could his chance was gone.
—Do not fail me, Kirisin Belloruus. Do not fail the Elves. Do what I have asked of you—
The branch lifted away and the voice went still. Kirisin waited, but nothing further happened. The Ellcrys was silent. He exhaled slowly, his mouth dry and his face hot. Everything that had just happened felt surreal, as if he had been lost in a dream.
"What am I going to do?" he whispered to the air.
HE WAITED UNTIL dawn, until after the greeting, until the rituals were satisfied, then gathered the Chosen together at the edge of the clearing and told them what had happened. They sat close, listening, their eyes skittering from face to face. When he finished, they stared at him as if he had lost his mind. The doubt on their faces was unmistakable.
"Don't you believe me?" he demanded angrily. He clenched his fists. "I know what I heard!"
"I know what you think you heard," Biat said, skepticism clear in his tone. "But maybe you imagined it."
A few of the others nodded in agreement. They wanted him to have imagined it. Kirisin shook his head angrily. "I didn't imagine anything! She spoke to me.
She told me some sort of change is coming, and it's going to destroy everything.
She told me we have to go somewhere else and take her with us. She talked about Elfstones and magic and histories and secrets. I heard her clearly enough."
"Sometimes whole groups of people think they see or hear something that never happened," Giln said quietly.
"The Ellcrys never speaks to anyone," added Raya. She shifted her dark eyes toward Kirisin. "Never."
"Never before, maybe," Kirisin said. "But she spoke today. You can pretend anything you want, but it doesn't change things. Stop talking about hallucinations and dreams. What are we going to do?"
"Erisha," Biat said suddenly. "What do you think we should do?"
Erisha didn't seem to hear him. But when everyone grew silent, waiting on her, she said, "Nothing."
"Nothing!" Kirisin repeated in disbelief. "Don't be ridiculous! You have to go to your father and tell him what has happened!"
Erisha shook her head. "My father won't believe any of this. I don't even know if I do!" She was suddenly angry. "I am leader of the Chosen, Kirisin. I say what we do and don't do. We need to wait on this, to make certain about it.
We need to see if she speaks to any of the rest of us. Then we can decide."
"That sounds sensible to me," Biat agreed, giving Kirisin a look that said, Be reasonable.
Kirisin couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Wait another day? See if she speaks to the rest of you? What sort of advice is that? She told me she depends on us for help! What sort of help are we giving her by waiting?"
"You don't really know what you heard!" Erisha snapped. "You just think you know! You daydream all the time! You probably hear voices all the time. You would be the first one to imagine something that never happened! So don't lecture the rest of us about what we should do in this matter!"
Kirisin stared at her, and then looked at the others. "Does everyone else think the tree didn't speak to me, that I imagined it?"
He waited for a response. There was none. Everyone looked somewhere else.
He couldn't tell whether they were on his side or Erisha's. In truth, it didn't matter. They could sit around talking about this until the cows came home, but it wouldn't help. What they had to do was to find out if there really were Elfstones. They had to discover if anyone had ever heard of a Stone called a Loden. Mostly, they had to do something besides bury their heads in the sand.
He refused the possibility that he might have imagined the Ellcrys talking to him. His mind was made up on that point. The humans and demons had found a way to destroy everything, and the Ellcrys was warning them that they had to do something about it. It was their job to protect and preserve her. She depended on them for that. Unless they were intending to abrogate their responsibilities toward her, they had no choice. They had to do what she asked.
Kirisin stood up. "The rest of you can do what you want. But I'm going to speak to the King!"
FIFTEEN
WITHOUT GIVING THEM another glance, Kirisin stalked out of the clearing.
The other Chosen shouted after him, telling him to come back, warning him that he was acting too quickly, not thinking things through. He was making a mistake, he heard Erisha shout. He ignored her, ignored them all, furious at their refusal to do more than find reasons to delay doing anything. Even Biat, his best friend. He had expected better of him. But then he always expected better of everyone except himself.
He was the one who always prevaricated. He was the one who should have been questioning this whole business.
But he wasn't doing so here. Why was that?