At first Belle thought Daivad was still trying to hide the camp from her as he led her around its outskirts. She wasn’t sure what secrets he thought he needed to keep from her. But she realized, when he caught her arm and pulled her around behind a tree just as two people passed by, chatting away, that he wasn’t hiding the camp from her, but her from the camp. She was the secret.

Well, at this point, he wasn’t doing a great job of keeping it.

They reached the largest tree yet, the largest one she’d ever seen, and Daivad nodded at a mass of vines running up its side that Belle realized were actually wrapped around a ladder. She grinned—they were going up, into his village hidden in the leaves. Without hesitation, she reached for the ladder, but—

“Wait.”

Belle caught his glance at her thin dress, its open sides just showing the band of her underwear, just as he looked away.

“I’ll go first,” he said.

It took her a second to understand, and then she snickered. “How respectable.”

He ignored her and pulled himself up the ladder.

“So you don’t mind if I’m staring up at your ass?”

This too he ignored. Still giggling, she swung up after him.

Once the ladder passed into the canopy of leaves, the village began to slowly reveal itself. First with just a few vines tied to hold some branches away from the ladder’s path. Then a sawed tree limb here or there. Then Belle saw where two larger branches had been lashed together and cleared of offshoots, forming a bridge that led to the next tree over. Next, the ladder passed under a spiraling wooden staircase that twisted off into the leaves, half formed with still-living branches that had been guided with nature magic, half with wooden planks, and wrapped with leafy vines so the staircase almost looked like it had just grown there naturally.

For the last five years of her life, Belle had learned to deny her curiosity. So many times since she met Richard, it had only guided her to pain, to shame. But here, not only hidden so far from Richard, but hidden even from the rest of the world, wrapped so snugly in the warm, damp, earthy magic of this forest, this village, Belle couldn’t help herself. When curiosity took her hand, tugged her toward the staircase, promised to run away with her—she let it. She took off.

“Ay!”

But Belle didn't stop—she’d learned from their romp through Urden that Daivad could and would chase her, and they were on his home turf now. So she was going to get as far into the village as she could before he caught up.

Off from the staircase was another branch-bridge, and Belle flew along it, a thrill running through her at the sound of Daivad’s footsteps behind her. The bridge arced up, and as it dipped back down, leading to the trunk of another tree, a large pulley system was set on a platform at the base of the bridge. A big hook dangled from a rope that reached up further into the branches.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Belle whispered, “Yes!” at the same time Daivad growled, “Don’t.”

She nearly crashed into the mechanism and gripped the hook before kicking the lever that jutted out of the contraption. The second it flipped, she was flying. Daivad’s fingertips just brushed the hem of her dress.

A delighted shriek burst out of her, then morphed into delirious laughter. It was just like being back on the trapeze, or in the silks, the way the surrounding magic just whipped by her. The shock and awe of her audience of villagers was so familiar.

The village finally revealed itself fully. There were flashes of color among the green and brown of the trees—clothing hanging out on clotheslines, people sitting on porches or crossing bridges, brightly colored homes nestled in branches or simply carved into the trunks, flowers adorning windows—

And then she saw the gardens. And they stole her breath.

She was so distracted by them, she didn’t realize she’d quite literally come to the end of her rope. Next thing she knew, she was stumbling along the platform that was suddenly beneath her feet and face-planting into a forgivingly mossy tree trunk in front of her.

Once Belle had blinked the stars from her vision, she looked back at the gardens, and they took her breath away all over again. There were platforms of varying sizes staggered among an open section of the canopy that allowed sunlight to illuminate the gardens. Each platform was connected by vines and branches that served as both bridges and support, and Belle headed for them immediately.

Ben’s nature magic was all over the gardens, as was his sheer genius. Herbs, flowers, and crops burst from their beds of rich, dark soil, and bees and butterflies flitted about, ensuring everyone was well pollinated. The magics of the plants bubbled lazily, stirred by the morning sun, and occasionally spilled over the edges of the platforms to drip from dangling foliage into the forest below. Belle took a long, deep breath, taking in the delicious, earthy scents.

And then she realized with a jolt that about half a dozen people were staring at her. They were all on different platforms, each covered in dirt and sweat even this early in the morning, obviously in the middle of tending the gardens when she’d showed up, smacked into a tree, and then stood there sniffing their plants.

With burning cheeks, Belle waved and then squeaked out a “Hello.”

They continued to stare at her.

“These gardens are incredible,” she found herself blabbering to fill the air with something other than awkward silence. “The plants are just overflowing with magic and love. I can see all the work and practice y’all’ve watered them with.”

One of the gardeners took a few steps away and said to their fellow gardeners, “I’ll fetch Daivad.”

“Oh, no need.” Belle hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “He’s right behind me.”

Sure enough, there was the telltale zip of the pulley system she’d rode in on. Daivad’s arrival was far more graceful than hers had been. He did look utterly irritated, however.

Belle gave the gardeners a quick goodbye wave and turned to attempt to dampen Daivad’s annoyance with some hasty explanations as he stomped his way toward her. “I was only exploring, not running, and you have to admit that was so much fucking fun, can you really expect a girl to resist? I said I’d come with you, and my words weigh true—I’m just taking the scenic route, yeah?”

He grabbed her arm and dragged her off, Belle babbling the whole way.