Secrets and Guardians: Devious Intentions by H. Chambers (summer beach reads txt) 📖

Gadolin went deep into the forest after Summer had been killed. After months of wandering aimlessly he finally headed for the ancient oak tree.

Many years ago he had entered the forest as a young man, badly injured he had sat resting his back on the oak and waited to die. As he slept he dreamt of the tree, its huge branches reaching down to him, a woman’s face seemed to appear on the bark. The face was kind and smiled gently at him. 

'You have a kind heart, do not blame yourself, there was nothing you could have done to save him,' the old tree said.

Gadolin thought that he must surely be about to die as to start dreaming about talking trees was not a healthy sign. The tree laughed, a rumbling sort of laugh causing the leaves to rustle. Gadolin joined in, he didn't realise dying would be this much fun. Opening his eyes he was surprised to find himself on one of the great branches, he looked down and there just where he had left it was his body. Well that wasn't so bad he thought, but what happens now? The bark of the tree undulated and there again appeared the face, a different place this time. The face smiled again and Gadolin felt a great sense of peace come over him.

'Would you like to stay and help me?' she asked. 'You can of course leave if you wish.'

'Where would this 'leaving' take me?' asked Gadolin.

The tree shook with laughter, 'Where do all good men go?'

'Depends who you believe, never been too sure myself,' replied Gadolin. 'If I stayed here would I be able to 'go' when I felt like it?'

'If you agreed to help me, you would have to stay in the forest. But yes, you would be free to move on when you felt like it,' she replied.

'As I have no idea whether this 'moving on' business is all it's cracked up to be, I think I would like to stay a while, but I can't really see how I can help you as I seem to be lacking a body,' joked Gadolin.

'That is something I can help you with, my name is Olesia and I believe yours is Gadling,' said Olesia.

'Gadolin,' corrected Gadolin. 'Pleased to meet you, can I just point out that I am still not sure if I am  dreaming as it's not every day an oak tree starts talking to you.'

'It's not every day I talk,' said Olesia.

'So what is it you want me to do?' enquired Gadolin.

'Protect us, not just the oak trees but also the ash, lime, willow, yew, beech, hazel, alder, hornbeam, sweet chestnut, horse chestnut, birch, aspen, pine, all the forest trees,' said Olesia.

'There's a lot of trees in this forest, don't see how I'm going to be able to help them all,' said Gadolin bluntly. 'And anyway what am I protecting you all from?'

'When I was young, nearly one thousand years ago, the forest covered all of Daranel and most of Thantos. Now we are being killed from both sides, great yew trees over six thousand years old have been lost and many great oaks like myself cut down and used to build your houses.' Olesia said sadly.

'You don't want me to kill people who come into the forest to chop down trees, do you?' asked Gadolin who had in his youth helped his father on numerous occasions to chop down trees.

Olesia smiled, 'No, I would never ask you to do that, but humans are very superstitious and easily frightened by things they don't understand.'

'So you would want me to scare the living daylights out of them?' said Gadolin.

'Well that's one way to put it,' laughed Olesia

Gadolin should maybe have asked Olesia what sort of 'body' he would have but at the time everything was so surreal it never occurred to him. He lay down on the branch and went into a deep sleep. When he awoke he opened his eyes and remembered he had been talking to a tree, the whole memory seemed absurd. Had he really talked to a tree? Gadolin moved his right arm, it felt strange and a bit stiff.

'Oh no!' Gadolin screamed and jumped to his 'feet' and then immediately fell over. Slowly Gadolin examined his new body, it was big. It was generally the same shape as he had been used to, but now the skin was more leathery and was patterned like the bark of a tree, more disturbing than that was the 'vine' wrapped all over him. It was not separate, it was part of him almost like having all your veins on the outside, but with leaves! Again he tried to stand, this time taking it a lot slower. The stiffness he felt he realised was not from the vines, just the newness of the body. Slowly he bent and stretched, it was very strange. His 'hands' reached for his face, he would have given anything for a mirror at this point. His face felt awful, all bumpy and lumpy, his lips coarse, his nose gnarled. Was he a tree? What did he eat? Did he eat dirt? No more roast chicken or ham or ale or honey!

Now when Gadolin thought back to those times so many years ago the thought of eating and drinking those sorts of foods repulsed him. He had soon discovered his new body needed plants, mushrooms, toadstools, seeds, berries all manner of things and all here in the forest. His body had proved perfect for living in the forest despite his appearance he was incredibly strong, fast and agile. His only real problem had been loneliness. He had many friends, some animal, some plant and some that would probably come under the heading of 'spooky'; but Summer had touched his heart. He didn't know if tree guardians had hearts as he had never felt anything beat in his chest, but now he could feel an ache right where his heart would have been. He continued walking deep into the forest. He had done everything Olesia had asked of him. Many of the superstitions that had developed over the years had been his devising. He had whispered in unsuspecting ears, jumped out at unsuspecting people and made noises that would have frightened the dead. Maybe it was time to move on, maybe when he got to Olesia he would sit by her and talk to her about all the good years he had had, but it was now time to say goodbye.

When he eventually reached the old oak tree he found an old woman sitting exactly where he had intended to sit, happily talking to Olesia. He felt a strange pang of jealousy, Olesia was his oak tree what was this old hag doing here?

'Hello Gadolin,' said Olesia shifting her face to look at him.

The old woman turned, 'Hello Gadolin,' she said. 'I need your help, I was just asking Olesia if I might borrow you for a while.'

'Well I was just coming here to tell Olesia that I had decided it was time for me to move on,' said Gadolin.

'You want to see Summer again,' said the old woman matter-of-factly.

'Well, yes,' said Gadolin.

'What I want help with, is to save Summer's daughter, if you leave now without at least attempting to help me, I wouldn't expect a rapturous welcome from Summer,' said the old woman.

'How can I help save Shade when she was taken by Thantos soldiers? She'll be locked up in Drumlin’s dungeons somewhere,' moaned Gadolin feeling upset by the thought.

'Not Drumlin’s dungeons. She has been wed to Kerdred and his sorry excuse for a castle lies close to this very forest, much further north of course,' said the old woman smiling at her own cleverness.

'I still don't know how I can help, no matter how close it might be, I can't leave the forest, so what do you expect me to do?' said Gadolin.

'I haven't a clue, yet, but you have been in my dreams and in those dreams you save Shade,' said the old woman pointing a bony finger at him.

'Why do you have such an interest in Shade? You’re not some great aunt of hers or something are you?' Gadolin had wanted to add a few extra 'greats' but thought better of it.

'Shade is not my only concern, it's what she is carrying that I am also interested in saving,' replied the old woman patting her stomach.

'Child?' questioned Gadolin, 'yes, yes you saw that in your dreams too, I guess,' he continued.

The old woman smiled and brought the bony finger to the side of her nose and tapped gently, nodding her head at the same time.

'I get the feeling there is a lot more that you are not telling me, or are going to tell me,' said Gadolin.

The old woman shrugged her shoulders, 'Well are you going to help me or not?'

'Why do I feel you knew the answer to that question even before you came here?' said Gadolin.

'It's always polite to let people think they make their own decisions,' said the old woman. 'Bye Olesia, will have to stop by again, enjoyed our little chat.'

Gadolin looked towards the old tree, Olesia was smiling at him.

'Little chat? How long ago did she get here?' asked Gadolin.

'About twenty minutes before you,' replied Olesia.

Gadolin chased after the old woman who was setting quite a fast pace for her age, whatever that age was. Catching up to her he asked her what he should call her now that they were going to be together for what he suspected would be a long time.

'Ah now that's an interesting question, I've had many names, which one should I go by?' said the old woman.

Gadolin waited for an answer, she seemed to be thinking about it so they continued in silence. Three hours later she stopped turned to him and said, 'Call me Rona,' turned back and then carried on her relentless pace.

It was nearly two weeks before they arrived at the place in the forest which looked out towards Kerdred's castle. In that time they had hardly spoken, Rona occasionally sang to herself but apart from Rona's need to eat and sleep they had kept a good pace.

Rona looked around and pointed to a tree, 'Sit up there and keep a look out,' she said.

Gadolin sat on the tree branch and watched the castle only coming down to find food, Rona kept making the odd appearance and asking what was happening, as the weeks turned into months Gadolin recognised many of the people who came and went, he watched the guards, the boys training with the Nefkins, shop keepers and of course the occasional glimpse of Shade. Each time Rona appeared he reported what he had seen, none of it was very interesting. Then one day when Gadolin was starting to believe he was going to be sitting on this