Terrisa awakened a few hours later to Horax shaking her. She sat up, dazed, and wondered why she wasn’t in her bed in the bedroom they shared in the shroomhouse.

“Horax?” she said thickly. Then she saw the sword at his side and the last evening tumbled back into her mind. “Horax! What is it?”

“Your turn to watch,” he said, and yawned.

“Anything happen?”

Horax looked up at the silent tree canopy above. “Nope. Didn’t even see an owlbat.”

Terrisa crept out from the double layer of cloaks she and Sorrel had been sharing. Her eyes alighted on a pair of glowing broaches on a flat stone by the fire.

“Our shroom broaches?” she said. “Where did you find them?”

Horax rubbed the light stubble on his chin. “Uh...they were way inside my rucksack. I guess Mum or Mama must have slipped them in.”

Terrisa picked hers up. Though to a stranger the brooches may appear as two identical autumn leaves, carved from petrified orange flameshrooms and glowing with a faint eternal light, Terrisa had always been able to tell them apart. She took her cloak off of Sorrel and clasped it around herself with her brooch. She touched it with her fingers and bowed her head.

“I hope they’re safe,” she murmured.

“They are,” Horax said.

“How can you be so certain?” Terrisa asked.

“Oh, you know,” he said, picking at his shirt. “I just know. I feel it.”

Terrisa smiled softly and looked into the embers of the fire. “I think I feel it too. They must be safe.”

“Well...good night,” Horax said. He wrapped himself up in his cloak and flopped down beside the fire.

Terrisa rolled her eyes, then became even more annoyed when just moments later, her brother began to snore. He could sleep anywhere.

She kept a weather eye on the surroundings of the camp, rising occasionally to make a sweep around the perimeter. She heard the nightly noises of the forest, and saw a small group of rabbitdeer through the trees. They did not see her. The calmness of their mannerisms put Terrisa at ease; rabbitdeer were always the first to be alerted when something went amiss in the Red Forest. She watched the creatures awhile, as their long, upright ears swiveled to catch the sounds of the forest, and their back hooves held them steady while their front paws sought out tender spring shoots. A middle-aged buck was just beginning to show his antlers, growing with the new season. Terrisa guessed that by summer solstice, he would have sixteen or eighteen points. Nothing out of the ordinary.

But she knew that the deeper they went into the Red Forest, the stranger things would become. There was only one safe path through the forest, trodden by merchants and honest travelers. Terrisa knew she could not risk taking it. Off the path, there was considerable danger--but still less certain danger than the Celesdine soldiers and the demon on their trail.

Sorrel found her on patrol near dawn. The half-nymph was wrapped in her cloak, her grassy hair wilted and her eyes bleary.

“Good morning,” she muttered, her voice husky. “I love you, but I may not be cut out for the ranger life. Sleeping on the ground is unpleasant.”

Terrisa kissed her cheek and they went back to camp. Terrisa brewed some tea over the fire and Sorrel tore up chunks of bread from a loaf in her rucksack.

“I wish we had coffee,” Terrisa said.

Sorrel had a waterskin held above her head, trying to sprinkle her wilted hair without completely soaking herself. “I don’t.”

“That’s because you only drink water,” Horax said. He crawled over to the fire, his cloak dragging behind him.

Sorrel reached out and straightened Horax’s cloak over his shoulders, then handed him a chunk of bread. He ripped off small pieces and chewed them sleepily. Terrisa poured tea for herself and Horax and blew on her cup to cool it.

“How long will it take us to get through the forest?” Horax asked after a few minutes.

“It’s three days’ journey on the road,” Terrisa said. “But…I’ve never walked through off the road. And I’ve always stayed on the Mycoton side of the forest when I hunt for rabbitdeer. It’s dangerous to go deep into the Red Forest without a guide.” Terrisa sipped her tea and was quiet for a moment before saying, “Mama took me deeper a few times. Before I took over hunting by myself.”

“So you know the way?” Sorrel said.

Terrisa drummed her fingers on the crust of her bread. “I know how to face what we’ll encounter. But all I can do is navigate by the sun and stars to get to the other side.”

Horax gestured to the thick canopy above, blocking out all light of the rising sun. “Brilliant. There are no sun and stars.”

Terrisa rolled her eyes. “I can climb up and look. I know what I’m doing, Horax.”

Horax muttered a high-pitched imitation of her intonation.

“What was that?” Terrisa said sharply.

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Horax stuffed his mouth full of bread and wisely said nothing.

“What about those demon soldiers?” Sorrel said. “They probably can’t navigate the Red Forest, but...they have a flying wizard.”

Terrisa rubbed her eyes and stared down into her tea. “I know. But the canopy only grows thicker as the deeper we go. He won’t be able to see us from above.”

Horax swallowed his bread in one large bolas, then made a choking sound and hastened to wash it down with tea. “I think,” he said, once his throat was clear. “That we don’t have to worry about him.”

Terrisa raised her eyebrows. Why? She asked in thought-speech.

She found Horax’s thoughts a chaotic jumble of disconnected words and emotions. Canopy--night--leaves. A feeling of embarrassment.

“The canopy,” he finally said, out loud. “I think you’re right, he won’t see us.”

“What if he burns it?” Sorrel asked, pulling her cloak tightly around herself. “He had fire magic.”

Terrisa shook her head. “This forest knows fire.” She touched the fallen tree scales that carpeted the forest floor. “The fire burns these leaves quickly, passing by and leaving the trees unharmed. And anyway, there’s no way for a single man to burn the whole forest. It stretches on for many miles, unbroken.”

Sorrel seemed to relax at the reassurance. She brushed excess water out of her now-perky hair and flicked it at Horax.

“Hey!” he said, pulling up his cloak to protect himself.

They packed up their rucksacks and Terrisa doused and buried the embers of the fire, then spread fallen redwood scales across the site to disguise it. Horax donned his armor and buckled Stormcaller at his side. Sorrel put her dirk on her belt and patted it, then cinched up her rucksack on her back. Terrisa strapped her quiver at her hip and put her longbow on her back. They set off.

The forest sloped steadily downwards, and the trees grew taller, until the canopy was high above them and their footsteps fell against twilit leaves. When Terrisa found a brook running along in their direction, she had them walk in the center of it. Horax complained bitterly, but Sorrel correctly guessed the water would cover both their footsteps and scent trail.

Sometime in the afternoon, Terrisa held up her hand. Her brother and girlfriend stopped behind her. A faint noise tickled at the edge of her hearing.

“We’re near,” she said. “Get out of the water.”

They stepped up on the banks and continued. Before long, the sound was unmistakable: the rush of water plunging in a deep waterfall. They came to the edge of it, and on both sides of the small falls, a drop stretched as far as the trees would allow them to see. The tree canopy above was unbroken, the trees still stretching from below with impossibly long trunks to meet the height of the trees on the edge of this overhang.

When Terrisa had said they would go deeper into the forest, she meant it literally.

“We’re going down there?” Horax said.

“Yes,” Terrisa said. “The depths of the Red Forest are dangerous--I won’t lie. There is a bridge, strung along the trees, all the way to the other side. But...if we cross the bridge, we will have nowhere to run if we’re cornered.”

“It takes three days to take the bridge,” Sorrel said. “How long will it take to climb down, and walk through?”

Horax crossed his arms. “Much too much time, I’d guess. We can’t, Terrisa. We need to get to Crookhaven, and fast. We need one of those armies Mum and Mama were talking about us leading--we need to bring them back and rescue Mycoton.”

Terrisa crossed her arms too. “Oh? So what, we take the bridge and that demon catches up to us in six hours and incinerates us. Great idea.”

“I told you,” Horax said. “We don’t have to worry about him.”

“I know I’m a good shot,” Terrisa replied. “But I have to tell you--that arrow to his arm last night isn’t going to slow him down much. I really doubt he’s incapacitated.”

Sorrel looked down at the fallen redwood scales at her feet. She always acted uncomfortable when Terrisa and Horax argued. But to Terrisa’s surprise, she spoke up--even if she didn’t look up.

“Horax,” said the half-nymph. “I know we spared the demon man’s life. And I still think we were right to do so! But...I don’t think he’ll give us the same courtesy.” Her hand drifted to the dirk she’d acquired last night. “I think he would just kill us. It’s what he was sent to Mycoton to do.”

Horax grumbled something unintelligible and dropped his gaze from Terrisa’s before she could sense his thoughts. He kicked at a fallen twig, his expression sullen.

“Fine,” he said. “We’ll climb down the long way.”

And so they climbed. The cliff was steep, too steep to walk, but it wasn’t sheer—they could cautiously climb down as though they were on a steep hill. The deeper they went, the darker and cooler it became. Though outside the forest spring had melted the snow and brought new flowers, here in the depths of the Red Forest, it still felt like midwinter. By the time they reached the bottom, they were shivering. There was no snow, however, since the canopy—many hundreds of feet above—had prevented snow from reaching the forest floor all winter.

Sorrel groaned as she touched her grassy hair. It began to dry out and turn brown. “I can’t believe it! It’s only just turned green again!”

Terrisa kissed her cheek. “I like your hair brown, too.”

“It’s fucking cold,” Horax said, shrugging his cloak closer around him.

Terrisa squeezed Sorrel’s shoulder and looked at her brother. “Yes, it’s cold, be a man about it. There’s a lot of unusual plant and animal life down here--you two have to follow me and step where I step. Even the ground could betray us”

“What’s down here?” Sorrel asked.

“Nothing elves were meant to know,” Terrisa said. She smiled at Sorrel. “But maybe nymphs were.”

Sorrel smiled back and tucked a lock of dried grass behind her ear. “I do sense how old this place is. As old as the petrified mushrooms we’ve carved our shroomhouses from.” She ran her fingers along the frosted bark of the nearest redwood tree. “Relics of a bygone age. Do you think they’ve seen the rise and fall of kings and queens of old?”

“I think there’s an old story,” Horax said. “About Dame Deyspring retreating to the Red Forest after the war.”

“Really?” Terrisa said. “I didn’t remember that.” She grinned at her brother. “And here I thought you didn’t pay any attention to Deyspring stories.”

Horax made a face and muttered a high-pitched “nenene” of derision, and Terrisa couldn’t even be surprised that his thought-speech was saying the exact same thing.

“I have more going on in my head than you think,” Horax said.

Terrisa scoffed.

They strode through the darkened woods, knowing it was daylight but hardly seeing evidence of it. As they walked, their bodies warmed, and Terrisa found herself shrugging her cloak back on her shoulders. The waterfall they’d climbed beside had become a meandering stream, shallow and wide. Glowing fish darted about in its waters.

Terrisa suddenly slammed out her arm and smacked it into Horax’s chest, stopping him from taking another chest.

“Wait!”

Horax stopped dead and made an exaggerated choking sound. “Ow!” he said.

Terrisa pointed to the ground. The fallen redwood needles were arranged in a spiral pattern on the ground. She took up a stone and tossed it in the center of the spiral. It instantly sank into the ground.

“Quicksand,” Terrisa said. “We go around.”

Before they could skirt around the telltale swirl, Sorrel snatched up Terrisa’s hand.

“Wait!” Sorrel hissed. “There’s something--”

An enormous figure emerged from the darkness surrounding them. Huge ears stretched up ten feet, with many-pointed antlers reaching still higher than that. The gnarled front paws made no sound upon the ground, and to Terrisa’s surprise, neither did the worn hooves behind. The elder rabbitdeer stopped and turned its milky eyes upon the three travelers.

Terrisa was certain it must be blind, or near it, but she also knew with certainty that it was gazing into her eyes and laying bare her soul. She struggled against the incursion, but the creature picked through her memories like a child picking a bedtime story for the night. The judgement of an ancient power swept over her. The longbow on her back suddenly felt heavier.

Then its gaze moved on, and settled upon Horax. He looked back at it for only seconds before his gaze quailed.

It turned to Sorrel. The half-nymph folded her hands nervously over her chest but she did not tear her eyes away. Elder and nymph looked steadily at each other for slow seconds, stretching to nearly a minute. Then Sorrel took a deep breath and bowed to the rabbitdeer.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

The towering creature turned and stalked away into the darkness. Terrisa and Horax stared after it.

“What just happened?” Horax asked.

Sorrel straightened up and looked into her folded hands. “He spoke to me--in thought-speech. He said there are beings more ancient than he in the forest, but they will know me because the blood of the forest runs in my veins. And he gave me this.” She unfolded her hands to reveal a small, jet-black redwood cone. Horax reached out to touch it, but she folded her hands over it again.

Terrisa tugged at one of her dreadlocks. “I really don’t think he liked me much.”

“No,” Sorrel said. “He didn’t.” At least she looked apologetic while stabbing Terrisa in the back.

Sorrel’s first time in the Redwood Forest and she’d already met an elder creature. Terrisa had hunted here a hundred times and never had the privilege--and now that she had, it had hated her.

“Let’s go,” Terrisa said.