Free REALM'S END (BOOK OF FEY 1) by Jules Hancock Page B

into Lindel’s mind, “I believe the boy has done right, my friend. Please let your anger go. This is the day I have warned would come. It would be better if you did not frighten the boy, just now.” The Great Rowan pushed a small tendril of root up through the floor of the room, and both the fey watched as it wound its way slowly across the floor to where Briok hovered. Ever so gently it touched Briok’s foot. “Lindel, please explain to the boy, I don’t want to hurt the child. I would not do this but his comfort is less important than communication right now. Tomorrow we will use the water, but today I need to be able to have him understand me easily so my root is going to tap into his nerves. Understand?”
         Lindel blanched a little for he knew of this way of connecting from old stories. He told Briok what the Great Rowan had said. Briok looked from his father, up into the Great Rowan’s crowning branches far overhead.  “Alright, I understand, but I can feel my fear rising up father,” Briok said, as his wings lifted him farther off the ground in his nervousness.
         Lindel looked at his son and realized what Briok was telling him. Lindel’s wings carried him across the space that separated him from his son, setting down next to the boy; Lindel put his hand on his son’s shoulder, gently guiding the boy back down to the ground. “It will go easier if you relax. I can hold you down so you won’t fly up in fear.”
         The Great Rowan’s root tendril, slid quickly along Briok’s barefoot, wrapping itself around and around his ankle and then just as suddenly the brown and green tendril rose up and the point of the root stabbed downward like a dagger, forcing itself into the indention behind Briok’s ankle bone.
         “Arhhh, by the Gods that hurts,” Briok cried out. The pain was a like a great hot knife tearing at his skin and his attention. He tried to steel himself against the pain. He realized then if his father hadn’t held him down, he would have tried to fly up out of reach of the Great Rowan. 
         “Lindel, pour the last drop of water out upon the boy’s wound. It will take the pain away. I don’t wish to hurt the boy.”
         Lindel feared letting go of the boy, even long enough to retrieve the water container, but the Rowan chose in that moment to use its great magic to bring the water vessel through the air and let it hang within Lindel’s reach. Lindel tipped the container carefully over the entrance wound and watched as he saw the last drop of water fall onto his son’s pierced skin.
         Instantly the pain was gone. In its place Briok felt an overwhelming sense of oneness with the great Rowan. “Thank you for taking the pain away, Great One.”
         “Child, you will not need to use your voice to speak with me now. We’ll all be safer if we speak only through our minds to one another. It is the only reason I have put you through this pain. I do not find it easy to hurt any of the children of the Realm. I’m sorry that there was not more water for you, but I know where it went, and I will say it was right of you to do it. Please tell me now, how is the girl? Though I can see your memories now, but tell me in your own words please.”
         Briok struggled as he tried to adjust to speaking only with his mind. He found he kept opening his mouth to answer a question, and he struggled not to speak the words out loud. Still he told the Rowan everything about finding the girl in the journeying cavern. The Rowan had many questions. Briok answered all to the best of his ability. Lastly, she asked him to describe how he felt when he understood who the girl was. Briok thought about this for a moment. “I felt protective of her. I still do,” he stammered.
         The Rowan conveyed her pleasure into the minds of both Briok and Lindel. “Good, then you shall be her guardian while she is here. You will try to keep her from harm’s way,