Path of the Whisper Woman

I stared into a mirror of ice to see the tattoo the Beloved had marked onto my skin. Both the mirror and the tattoos should have been impossible, but I was quickly learning that wasn't a word I should use in the Beloved's presence. It seemed she lived in a world made more of impossible things than not.

First, the mirror. It looked like ice, was cold like ice, but it didn't melt in the comfortable temperature of the hall. The clarity of my reflection was also better than anything I had seen before. Staring into it was like looking at a twin and I decided I preferred the partial reflections that came from looking in a pool of water or bit of regular ice. There didn't need to be two of me, especially when it felt like the fake might step out of the mirror at any moment.

Second, the tattoo. A pine branch spread needles under each of my collar bones. At a quick glance they were painstakingly detailed but simple. Dark ink, stem, needles. However, if you looked from a certain angle or I stepped into sunlight, the regular dark ink took on a green sheen. And if you looked too long, those pine needles formed eyes that peered back at you.

The tattoo was nothing like the Black Handed Healer's markings. Those were intricate, yes, and clearly done by a skilled hand, but they didn't have the eerie depth of the branches inked onto my chest.

The Beloved let out a self-satisfied sigh as she took in her work. "It's been a long time since I've made something original. Ah, and let me know if anything happens with your eye. It's unusual for the glimmer to last so long, but perhaps the world saw fit to hook another wish into your boon since you have something of the night about you."

My eye, the third impossible thing. The left one, the one a star collided with in a pool of night, now sparkled as if some of that liquid night had poured into my iris—but only in dark areas and impossibly clear ice mirrors.

The Beloved had pulled a curtain closed to block off the small alcove the mirror was tucked into from the light of the rest the hall. I had rooted to the spot when I realized the tiny pinpricks of light I could see in the mirror came from my face. She watched me for a long moment before opening the curtain back up and the glowing stardust in my eye faded. I'd have to remember that I wouldn't be nearly so inconspicuous in the dark as I'd like now. Perhaps I'd have to get an eye patch.

Still, there were better things to be concerned with in the moment.

"What do you mean the world hooked another wish into my boon?"

Her expression turned enigmatic. "We'll have to see, won't we? But you must have been wishing for something when you opened your eyes."

"I wasn't."

"Everyone's always wishing for something."

I suppressed a shudder as her words echoed the wish maker. And, since she seemed to prefer boldness over anything I dared to ask,

"What do you wish for?"

She laughed. "You think there's something?"

I waited. I didn't want to guess wrong and insult her. However, her tone took on the slightest edge after the silence stretched. "Well?"

"There's something. The goddess would have gotten bored otherwise."

"As She should. Wishes aren't meant to stagnant."

Her tone wasn't harsh, not like our first conversation, but it was final. She turned and led the way back to her spot on the dais. I got fully dressed and breathed a quiet sigh of relief for it. Any bit of protection I could get from her assessing gaze was something I welcomed. I had learned better how to interact with her, but my reserves for interaction and concentration were wearing thin.

She settled onto her cushion. "Go. Offer your blood to the tree in the delta and you will understand that which was wrought for you."

I hesitated. "Juniper and her mother?"

"They've been returned."

After two ominous statements, I decided not to keep pushing my luck. I bowed to the Beloved and stepped back into the pine tree's shadow. As I stepped back into the delta I felt the way to the Beloved's hall close. I wouldn't find a shadow to anchor my path, not unless she sent me another invitation.

As soon as I left the shadow paths it became clear the area around the goddess grown tree was no longer empty. The marshy plain squelched under the feet of the entire Swirling Waters tribe. All the whisper women involved in the delta were present as well and the people from the Rookery. Juniper and Tribe Master Toniva stood off to the side of the tree's shadow. Cascade rose up from the river that fed into the delta and splashed back down, apparently enjoying drenching those that stood too close to the edge.

I blinked in shock. They all should have been on the other end of the delta, still keeping the horde at bay. My time with the Beloved might have stretched unreasonably long but, even if the shadow paths were open in the delta, defenses would still need to be maintained. The fish wouldn't kill themselves.

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I focused on Juniper. It was easier to speak with her than acknowledged the silence spreading through the crowd as people noticed my presence.

"Why is everyone here? What about our defenses?"

She shook her head. "It was made quite clear that everyone was supposed to assemble here on the High Priestess's orders and anyone left behind wouldn't live to regret it. We had until you returned. Once you offer your blood our requests will be fulfilled."

I glanced over at Tribe Master Toniva who nodded in agreement. She still seemed to be grappling with the Beloved's direct interference into her life, but there wasn't much any of us could do about that. I had plenty of my own to reflect on once I got a moment to myself.

Everyone was silent and staring now.

One more task. One last, simple thing and my time in the delta should be over. My unexpected obligation complete.

At least, I hoped it would be.

I drew my prayer needle free as I approached the pine tree. For a moment, I debated between pricking my wrist or thigh before deciding that I couldn't take a half measure on this final step. I undid the flap on my pants and drew blood from my bless mark.

"I offer the goddess my blood. May She accept it."

Droplets sailed through the air from my prayer needles to the tree's bark. They soaked into the tree as if it were parched ground and disappeared. Nothing changed from my perspective until I heard the shouts of shock and awe. Then I followed a finger pointing over my head and saw that handfuls of needles throughout the tree were turning red as blood while the rest stayed green.

The ground shook. I followed the crowd's attention again to find that the tree's shadow had stretched out to an unnatural length and was now pouring into the delta as if it were water. The delta's water turned cloudy with shadow. As we watched the new shadows condensed around the old. The natural shadows of the bulbous pines grew darker and darker until whirlpools started to form in the darkest shadows. Trees shifted as if of their own accord but their shadows didn't always shift with them. In fact, their roots would pierce down into their own shadows as if to hold them in place.

I didn't understand what I was seeing. Not completely, not at first. But as one thing led to the next and escalated throughout the delta, my tired mind was finally able to put the pieces together. I was getting the shadow paths I asked for. But these weren't the standard ones I knew—the only kind I thought possible—instead these were permanent. Not made from a whisper woman's mind and boon, but by the goddess's will. I'd never seen the natural world interact with a shadow path before and yet now roots grew down into them and water poured in as well.

If anyone fell into those shadows…it would be a death trap.

Juniper shouted and I turned again to find her and all the Swirling Waters tribe clutching at their bless marks. My own mark started to burn, not in the way it did when I was on death's edge but still unpleasant, and I hissed out a breath.

Finally, the High Priestess rose out of the goddess grown tree's shadow, even while it was pouring shadow into the delta, which wasn't a feat I'd have wanted to try. Lithunia didn't shout but the wind still carried her voice evenly over the crowd.

"Welcome to the Blood Feast Wood. All those who contributed blood to its making will be safe from the shadow rapids and travel through them at will. Those that did not best step lightly without a guide. This tree will still be the only connection, aside from summoning branches, that can access shadows outside the wood. Those with only a connection to the wood will not be able to use the shadows beyond it. May the Wood feast well on the horde!"

Then the High Priestess was gone again, back in the shadow, and I to take a moment to make sure I hadn't dreamed her, but clearly I hadn't been the only one to hear the proclamation. Tribe Master Toniva carefully walked up to the shadow and stretched out a hand. It disappeared in the shadow. She wasn't touching Juniper or me, she didn't have black lips from drinking shadow, and yet her hand entered the shadow paths as if she practiced it her whole life.

A tribesperson could walk the shadow paths. In a limited area, yes, but that was still an unprecedented change. Shadow walking was a mark of a whisper woman. If a tribe could do so as well then there could be no doubt that the goddess recognized them.

As time went on and a few more daring people threw caution to the wind to explore—and we took storm birds to the sky—we learned that the entire delta had been changed. All the pine needles stayed red and the pines kept their bloated appearance, but now with the water pouring into shadows in a myriad of places and pouring out of others, some spots were drying out while others flooded. The shadows didn't move with the sun. They stayed right where the tree roots held them. The tribesfolk could use them like doorways, easily stepping in and out. They began to call them the caverns because they said it was like walking through a cave system. Or at least that was the most similar comparison they could make. I held off on trying it.

The horde had little hope of conquering the delta now. What had been a trap, broken and past its prime, was now a truly defensible stronghold. Every water way that connected with the sea had been transformed by a powerful riptide that made it difficult for the fish to swim close. Even if they managed it, they then would typically get caught in the shadow the water was bursting from and without the goddess's boon that meant getting lost and trapped in the shadowy depths of the caverns. For the few that managed to get past both riptide and shadow, there were still plenty of tribesfolk to take care of them. The fish also no longer had an easy swim up the waterways. Everything was broken up and intermixed by the shadows, so it was more maze than anything else and the horde had plenty of opportunities to get swallowed up by the shadows.

All of our requests for meeting the requirements had been met. The Swirling Waters tribe had a truly defensible position and recognition while the shadow paths had been opened more than I would have bargained for. Not that I needed the shadows now. The tribe was more than capable of taking care of the delta on their own, even as they were settling into the new circumstances.

I had my own circumstances to deal with. New marks, new connections, new fame. I locked myself away as soon as I could to think and rest but not before I started hearing some people say I was the next Chosen. Some took it a step further and gave me another nickname: the Little Love.

Not the Beloved, but perhaps challenged and loved by the goddess in a lesser way. Or perhaps just indulged by the Beloved, to the same effect.