The Evertree

  Kovo, ruling Erdas. Rollan shivered.

  To his surprise, Tellun shook his head so that the Platinum Elk slid to hang on one of his antlers. He pointed his antlers at Conor, waiting for him to take the talisman. “I entrust you all, and the Four Fallen, with my talisman. It will be drawn to the others, just as we are being called to the Evertree by Kovo. I can feel the pull already. Should something happen to me, I want to know that the talisman lies in your grasp, not mine. Kovo’s power is not something to underestimate. We must stop him now, or he will control all of us.”

  Conor reached out in the silence and took the talisman from Tellun’s antlers. Rollan stared at it, wondering what would befall them now.

  Tellun met the gazes of the Four Fallen again. “The balance among the Great Beasts has been shaken forever. There is no going back.” He closed his eyes. “Our time may be coming to an end.”

  Conor’s prophetic words came back to Rollan in a flash. Our spirit animals may not survive this war. The thought of ending his bond with Essix was so overwhelming that Rollan wanted to double over in pain. As Tellun’s words sunk in for everyone, the sky continued to shift. Lightning streaked quietly along the horizon, warning of a distant storm, and an electric tension hung in the air. What little of the morning sun that had shone was now entirely covered by clouds.

  Tellun lifted his head and sniffed the air once. “Kovo is calling,” he said. “He is summoning the Great Beasts to the Evertree now.”

  WHEN MEILIN HAD FIRST BEEN AFFLICTED BY THE BILE, its chains had been so insidious that she didn’t even know they were there, tying her to Gerathon. But now that Tellun had freed her, she felt as if she’d taken a deep breath of the freshest air. Like she had dived into a cool, crystal clear lake.

  And then Rollan had kissed her. A real kiss.

  It’d lasted barely a second, but she couldn’t stop blushing and smiling, in spite of everything.

  Only when Tellun said that the Great Beasts’ time might be coming to an end did her smile waver. She took a step closer to her panda, and Jhi uttered a comforting grunt in the back of her throat. Jhi. Guilt welled up again in Meilin’s chest. She had taken Jhi’s presence for granted so many times – but the thought of losing her entirely, especially now that they were both freed from Gerathon’s control? Meilin’s heart twisted painfully.

  Tellun focused on each of the Four Fallen. He narrowed his eyes. “You do not feel Kovo’s pull,” he finally said in his deep rumble. “Your original severance from the Evertree has made you immune to Kovo’s calling.” He nodded thoughtfully. “You all once gave your lives in order to save Erdas. I must now call on you to put yourselves in peril once more, to stop Kovo from succeeding.”

  A hush fell over them. Meilin looked on, heart in her throat. She wondered for a moment if their spirit animals would answer Tellun’s plea.

  Then Briggan took a step forward, his fur shining, and bowed his head before the Great Elk. Pledging his dedication. Meilin’s eyes widened. He would give his life again?

  Essix let out a piercing shriek. Jhi, too, turned to Meilin, and Meilin felt her heart lift in comfort. Jhi’s eyes were warm and full of wisdom, the look of the wise earth guarding her wards, the tree offering shelter from the storm, the bonfire chasing away the cold. It was the gaze of a mother. Meilin felt tears well in her eyes. She didn’t want to lose Jhi.

  Only Uraza pawed the ground in disapproval, leaving grooved claw marks in the dirt. Her growl sounded suspicious and scathing, the hints of a deep bitterness apparent.

  Tellun bowed his head, as if understanding. His antlers gleamed. “I apologize, Uraza,” he replied, “for not standing with you all during the last war. It has always been my hope to interfere as little as possible in the natural order. But I give you my word. I will stand with you to the end.”

  Uraza looked wary, her violet eyes flashing. A long moment passed. Finally, she nodded once to Tellun. Then she joined the others in bowing her head.

  As the Four Fallen pledged their dedication, Meilin noticed something else happening. Briggan, Essix, Jhi, and Uraza looked larger than usual – paws wider, legs taller, tails longer, talons sharper. They looked, in fact, closer to how they must have once been before they gave their lives. Behind each of them shimmered a ghostly aurora that resembled their former selves: towering, regal silhouettes. Meilin shivered with delight at the ghost of Jhi’s Great Beast form – the gentle, round panda she knew had once looked like an enormous, fierce warrior, a hulking giant that radiated respect. The shape gleamed and glistened behind Jhi, changing colors underneath the dark sky.

  In the midst of the overwhelming display, a tiny movement at the corner of Meilin’s vision caught her attention. It was Shane. As Tellun spoke, Shane had stayed standing at a distance from them all, unmoving. Now he took a step toward them.

  Meilin thought he might be moving to attack. “Stop!” she called out, pointing at him.

  Shane stopped walking at Meilin’s shout. He gave her a calm look and shook his head. If his hands weren’t still tied, he likely would have lifted them in surrender. “I didn’t mean to alarm you,” he said. His jaw was set in a resolute gesture. “I want to come too.”

  “Not so fast,” Abeke snapped. “This is another one of your lies.”

  “Yeah,” Rollan added. “I don’t think you’re in a position to make demands, Shane.”

  “But what do we do with him?” Meilin asked, studying Shane. How strange. Not long ago, he’d seemed like such a threatening opponent. Now, he simply stood there and gave them a level look.

  “I can help you,” he said. “I know things that you don’t.”

  Abeke scowled. Rollan raised an eyebrow. “Forgive us if we’re a little skeptical about your intentions,” he said sarcastically. Shane’s expression didn’t change.

  Conor shook his head. “He’s right. He knows more about Kovo, Gerathon, and Halawir than all of us.” He took a deep breath. “I think Shane should come.”

  Meilin and Rollan both jerked their heads toward Conor in surprise.

  “What?” Meilin said.

  “You want him to come with us?” Rollan added.

  “Yes,” Conor repeated, his voice firm. “This is his mess in the first place. He needs to help us fix what he started.”

  Meilin kept her voice as reasonable as she could. “Shane is a traitor,” she said. Her eyes went to Abeke, who had crossed her arms and was regarding Shane with a wary look. “Abeke, maybe you should make the call.”

  Abeke was quiet for a moment. Then she lifted her head higher. “I agree with Conor. Shane should come with us. Who knows what will happen if we leave him here? He might escape again. If he comes with us, at least we can keep an eye on him.” She turned to Shane. Her voice became scathing. “If you’re remotely genuine about anything you said to me earlier, then you’ll help us track down Kovo and stop him.”

  Something about the thought of striking back at Kovo seemed to light a spark in Shane’s eyes again. It was a small spark, a fraction of what had once burned there, but it was a light all the same. His eyes narrowed.

  “I’ll kill Kovo myself,” he said.

  Tellun stepped between them, quieting everyone. He turned his head toward Shane and held his gaze. Shane trembled as he looked into Tellun’s unwavering eyes.

  “Shane will come with us,” Tellun finally said. “We need all the help we can muster.”

  Conor looked at Meilin and Rollan. “We’ll be careful,” he reassured them. “We’ll keep him tied tightly up.” He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten what he’s done either.”

  Rollan sighed, but when Essix bowed her head in deference to Tellun, he threw his hands up and shrugged. “Fine. He comes with us.”

  Meilin looked at Abeke, who tightened her jaw and walked toward Shane. Anger bubbled in Meilin’s stomach, and she told herself silently that she would still make him pay for what he’d done to her and the others.

  Abeke stopped right in front of Shane.
“So,” she said. “You want to be worthy? Well, now’s your chance.”

  THE SIDE OF MUTTERING ROCK THAT THEY HAD CLIMBED up was sheer and steep, but the opposite side sloped like a mountain, revealing a large expanse of land that ended with the white foam of the seashore. As they made their way down, Conor shot an apologetic smile at Meilin and Abeke, who still didn’t look thrilled with their new companion. Shane stumbled along behind Tellun, tied to the elk with a thick length of rope. His hands were bound tightly behind him, done by Abeke and Meilin. He walked in silence, with his head down.

  “Where is the Evertree?” Conor asked Tellun as he traveled beside the mighty elk.

  “The Evertree grows in the place where all life began,” Tellun explained. “It marks the piece of land that first emerged from the oceans.”

  Where all life began. Nearby, Abeke turned in interest. “Yes! We have many tales about the first land,” she piped up. “Chinwe used to say that Nilo was the firstborn, birthed from the fires in the world’s belly.”

  Tellun gave her a wise nod. “You are right, Abeke. Nilo is the First Lands, the origin of all life.” Conor saw Abeke puff up a little with pride.

  “But we’re in Stetriol right now,” Meilin said. Rollan lifted an eyebrow at her obvious statement, but she just nudged him in the ribs.

  “Yeah,” Conor added. “Our ship, the Tellun’s Pride, sank as we tried to dock in one of Stetriol’s bays. How are we going to get to Nilo?”

  “We will walk there,” Tellun replied.

  Rollan let out a grunt of disbelief. “I’m sorry,” he said. “For a moment, I thought you said we were going to walk from Stetriol – the island continent – to Nilo.”

  “How is that possible?” Conor asked.

  Tellun’s antlers gleamed. “In the earliest days, when the world was very new, the oceans sat lower and left more of our lands uncovered. Conor, did your ship encounter the jagged rocks lining Stetriol’s bay?”

  Conor nodded.

  “Those jagged teeth first existed when the oceans were low and Stetriol was young. They were called the Jaws of the Underland. The ocean swallowed them up after several millennia, but now they have returned. All of the things you have seen happening around the world – earthquakes, storms, blizzards – are turning the world back to how it looked in those early days.”

  Suddenly Conor understood what Tellun was saying. “In the old days, there was a way to walk from Stetriol to Nilo, wasn’t there?”

  Tellun paused to nod toward the ocean in the distance. “Yes. Long ago, a narrow land bridge connected northern Stetriol to southern Nilo. Now, this bridge has once again reappeared.”

  At that, Rollan sighed dramatically. “Oh, good to know. I wish it had reappeared a little faster, so that we could’ve taken that to Stetriol instead of nearly dying in those Jaws while sailing here.”

  As they traveled down from Muttering Rock and toward the ocean, Conor started to see what Tellun was talking about. Far along the horizon, waves crashed against a tiny strip of new land – it barely peeked out of the water, but even from here, Conor could see its uneven rock pushing against the sky. It connected to the Stetriol mainland.

  “How far away is Nilo from here?” Conor asked. He was a bit too embarrassed to ask if he could actually walk from one continent to another.

  But Tellun just blinked at him. It was strange to see a hint of mischief on such a reverent Great Beast’s expression. “How would you all like a lift?” he said.

  By a lift, Tellun meant a ride on his back. And by a ride on his back, Tellun meant that each step he took made the ground below them rush by, as if they were all carried forward by some magical force.

  All of them – Conor, Abeke, Meilin, Rollan, and even Shane – could fit comfortably on the Great Elk’s back with plenty of room to spare. To Conor, it felt like riding on the back of a mountain – like he was close enough to touch the sky. The wind whipped against their faces as Tellun led them off of Stetriol and onto the narrow land bridge that carved a path through the ocean. Conor couldn’t help throwing his head back, closing his eyes, and letting the wind comb through his hair.

  The land bridge wasn’t perfect. Essix, the only one of their spirit animals that stayed out of dormant state, flew ahead, shrieking warnings whenever she saw places where the rocks were still partially covered by the ocean, leaving paths as narrow as Conor was tall. The rocks here were slippery and wet. But Tellun never seemed to slow or stumble. He walked on, serene and mystical, and the earth beneath them flew past. Sometimes, the rocks sat so low in the water that they couldn’t see them at all. It appeared as if they were walking on the ocean, with nothing beneath them but their own reflections mirrored back on the surface of shining glass.

  As Stetriol became a thin strip along the horizon behind them, Conor’s heart began to beat more rapidly. Something about the earth here pulsed with new life, like the heart of a giant creature. Conor found himself constantly searching for the first signs of Nilo.

  The clouds cleared as the hours dragged into the afternoon. They traveled so quickly on Tellun’s back that by the time the sun started to set, bathing the ocean in golden light, Conor saw the telltale silhouette of land rising along the horizon. He pointed at it.

  “Look!” he exclaimed. “Nilo.”

  All of them – except Shane – let out a whoop. When Conor looked over his shoulder, he saw Abeke take a deep breath. “Home,” she murmured under her breath.

  The clouds had started to gather again, turning darker with each passing second as the sun dipped into the water. The wind picked up too, whipping their cloaks out behind them. Conor squinted at the approaching land. He hadn’t seen this side of Nilo before – or perhaps the changing world had shifted it into something unrecognizable. The land bridge began to slope out of the water, until they were now suspended a good twenty feet above the ocean. Sheer cliffs stretched on either side of Nilo. Conor tried not to think about how high they were.

  But, most noticeably, Conor could see an enormous, craterlike formation looming ahead, not far from where the land bridge connected with the mainland.

  “We are drawing near,” Tellun said, his low voice sending a rumble through everyone.

  Fat drops of rain started to fall right as they reached Nilo. Tellun began traveling up narrow paths that winded along the crater’s edge. The air was colder here, and Conor had to wrap his green cloak more tightly around his shoulders. The trees began to dwindle until they disappeared altogether, leaving nothing but low shrubs, yellow grasses, and bare rock along the path. As they climbed higher, Conor could see the land bridge winding back toward Stetriol like a slender snake through the ocean.

  The sky behind them looked gray and threatening. Conor hadn’t been able to make it all out from the ground, but from this higher vantage point, he could see that the clouds streaked in ominous lines from Stetriol all the way to where they were in Nilo, gathering in swirling circles over their heads. He shivered.

  As they crested the top of the crater, Conor realized that it was the remnants of what must have been the most massive volcano that ever existed. His jaw dropped at the sight. Once upon a time, this volcano would have been a formidable sight, raining lava and ash on its surroundings before collapsing in on itself in a spectacular display. Now, high from his new vantage point on top of the volcano’s edge, Conor looked down on the inside of the ancient, collapsed crater and saw a huge expanse of lush green land.

  Tellun spoke in the silence. “You are now on sacred ground,” he said. “This is the birthplace of all life. Only the Great Beasts can find this place.”

  The clouds overhead had turned even darker, and lightning streaked at the edges of the crater. Conor’s eyes shifted to a single tree standing tall in the center of the crater. He knew immediately what he was looking at. His eyes widened.

  “The Evertree.” His voice came out a hoarse whisper.

  It was taller than any tree Conor had ever seen in his life. It shimmered under the dark s
ky, glowing as if from within, a rainbow of silver and gold. Its branches reached up to the skies in an enormous canopy of shimmering leaves. Its twisting silver trunk was at least a dozen times as wide as Tellun’s antlers. Pure white fruit hung from the Evertree’s branches. Conor could hardly breathe as he took in the sight.

  The origin of all life.

  A rumble of what sounded like thunder shook the crater. They all startled at the sound. Meilin glanced back at Conor with raised eyebrows. “What was that?” she said.

  “Thunder?” Rollan piped up, distracted. He couldn’t take his eyes off the Evertree either.

  The rumble sounded again. This time it was louder. There, standing below the Evertree’s mighty branches, was a dark shape. A jolt of fear lanced through Conor. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s Kovo’s roar.”

  The ape lifted the staff high over his head. This time, his roar was unmistakable – it pierced the air and brought goose bumps out on Conor’s arms. When he looked closer, he noticed Gerathon’s serpent body coiled beside Kovo’s, and Halawir perched in the branches of the Evertree. Even from this distance, they looked enormous and forbidding, more so than during their last confrontation on Muttering Rock.

  But as large as they loomed, the Evertree dwarfed them all. Somehow, this gave Conor the bit of strength that he needed.

  Tellun lowered his neck so that they could all slide off. Shane, still tied up, landed on the ground with an undignified roll. He grunted. Conor picked himself up and called for Briggan. With a flash of light, the wolf appeared at his side.