“Raistlin, your staff.” Tanis said. His voice echoed too loudly through the silent trees. Even Caramon cringed.
“Shirak.” Raistlin spoke the word of command and the crystal globe clutched in the disembodied dragon’s claw flared into light. But it was a cold, pale light. The only thing it seemed to illuminate were the mage’s strange, hourglass eyes.
“We must enter the woods.” Raistlin said in a shaking voice. Turning, he stumbled toward the dark wilderness.
No one else spoke or moved. They stood on the bank, fear overtaking them. There was no reason for it, and it was all the more frightening because it was illogical. Fear crept up on them from the ground. Fear flowed through their limbs, turning the bowels to water, sapping the strength of heart and muscle, eating into the brain.
Fear of what? There was nothing, nothing there! Nothing to be afraid of, yet all of them were more terrified of this nothing than they had been of anything before in their lives.
“Raistlin’s right. We’ve-got to-get into the woods-find shelter . . .” Tanis spoke with an effort, his teeth chattering. “Follow Raistlin .”
Shaking, he staggered forward, not knowing if anyone followed, not caring. Behind him, he could hear Tika whimper and Goldmoon trying to talk through lips that would not form words. He heard Caramon shout for his brother to stop and Riverwind cry out in terror, but it didn’t matter. He had to run, get away from here. His only guidance was the light of Raistlin’s staff.
Desperately, he stumbled after the mage into the woods. But when Tanis reached the trees, he found his strength was gone. He was too scared to move. Trembling, he sank down on his knees, then pitched forward, his hands clutching at the ground.
“Raistlin!” His throat was torn by a ragged scream.
But the mage could not help. The last thing Tanis saw was the light from Raistlin’s staff falling slowly to the ground, slowly, and more slowly, released by the young mage’s limp, seemingly lifeless hand.
The trees. The beautiful trees of Silvanesti. Trees fashioned and coaxed through centuries into groves of wonder and enchantment. All around Tanis were the trees. But these trees now turned upon their masters, becoming living groves of horror. A noxious green light filtered through the shivering leaves.
Tanis stared about in horror. Many strange and terrible sights he had seen in his life, but nothing like this. This, he thought, might drive him insane. He turned this way and that, frantically, but there was no escape. All around were the trees-the trees of Silvanesti. Hideously changed.
The said of every tree around him appeared trapped in torment, imprisoned within the thank. The twisted branches of the tree were the limbs of its spirit, contorted in agony. The grasping roots clawed the ground in hopeless attempts to flee. The sap of the living trees flowed from huge gashes in the trunk. The rustling -of its leaves were cries of pain and terror. The trees of Silvanesti wept blood.
Tanis had no idea where he was or haw long he had been here. He remembered he had begun walking toward the Tower of the Stars that he could see rising above the branches of the aspens. He had walked and walked, and nothing had stopped him. Then he’d heard the kender shriek in terror, like the scream of some small animal being tortured. Turning he saw Tasslehoff pointing at the trees, Tanis, staring horrified at the trees, only eventually comprehended that Tasslehoff wasn’t supposed to be here. And there was Sturm, ashen with fear, and Laurana, weeping in despair, and Flint, his eyes wide and staring.
Tanis embraced Laurana, and his arms encompassed flesh and blood, but still he knew she was not there-even as he held her, and the knowledge was terrifying.
Then, as he stood there in the grove that was like a prison of the damned the horror increased. Animals mounded out from among the tormented trees and fell upon the companions.
Tanis drew his sword to strike back, but the weapon shook in his trembling hand, and he was forced to avert his eyes for the living animals had themselves been twisted and misshapen unto hideous aspects of undying death.
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