Where the Black Flowers Bloom by Ronald L. Smith

Author:Ronald L. Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

Strangers

LONG, MISTY TENDRILS suddenly swirled around the horse’s body. Asha couldn’t tell if they were coming from the ground or the horse itself. Rima knelt and looked closer. “Impossible,” she whispered.

Asha stared in awe as the mist became a heavy blanket of fog, completely covering the animal, and then slowly fading to reveal another form: a boy. Sprix.

“A shape-shifter,” Rima hissed, standing up. “I knew he had a secret.”

“Gods be with us,” Obo whispered.

Asha’s mind was reeling. She hadn’t had time to think about the burning branch, or the bizarre monster they had just defeated. She reached into her pack and found a tattered blanket, which she drew over Sprix, who was unclothed. How can it be?

Sprix stirred and opened his eyes.

“Here,” Asha said, helping him to sit up.

“Water,” he croaked. Asha reached for her pouch and handed it to him. He drank greedily, his throat working desperately.

“That’s enough,” Rima said, not too kindly.

Sprix set the pouch on the ground and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Why didn’t you tell us of your gift before?” Rima challenged him.

Sprix looked up, pupils still wide, just like the black horse’s. “Gift?” he said. “I think it’s a curse.”

“A curse?” Asha repeated.

“Finn said it was. Said I was left by a faerie and they took his real son.”

“A faerie shape-shifter, then,” Rima said. “A rare combination, indeed.”

Asha felt like Rima and Sprix were speaking another language, one she had no idea how to understand. “What . . . is a faerie?” she asked.

“A creature not wholly human,” Rima replied. I have heard tales of these folk living on the far side of the world in Mercia, but they are something not known in this land.”

Asha was still breathing hard from the attack and having trouble gathering her thoughts. Sprix wrapped the blanket around his skinny shoulders and looked at her. He was a boy again. Just a boy in the woods.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.

Sprix stared at the ground. He seemed at a loss for words. “I thought it was safer to keep it a secret.” He sniffed. “I’m sorry, Asha.”

Rima eyed Sprix with a questioning gaze but said nothing.

“I just wish you would have told me,” Asha said.

“What were those things?” Obo asked.

“Minions of the Shrike!” Rima spat out.

Asha looked at one of them, dead, inches away from where she stood. It was terrible to see. The wings were beautiful, a kaleidoscope of luminous colors, but its rider was something entirely opposite: it had a small humanlike body, lank black hair, and sharp teeth.

“And the other thing?” Obo put in. “The demon?” He looked to Asha with the same expression on his face as when she’d turned the shadow men into dust.

“You named him, Asha,” Rima said. “Butrungin. How?”

“I don’t know,” Asha said in a quiet voice.

“And the branch?” Rima pressed her.

Asha shrugged, speechless, trying to form words. “I just felt this . . . power. I held it up and it was on fire!”

Rima gave a wry half smile.

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