The Story of the Trees - Sword, Ring, and Crown Book One

Prologue

Prologue

Four years ago

"The truth was a mirror in the hands of God. It fell and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it, and they looked at it and thought they had the truth." - Rumi.

   I had the broken pieces of truth, but at the time, I didn't comprehend it. All I recognized was that Mother abandoned me. My sin was being unaware that I was also one of the pieces.

We turned up in an alley beside a bank of large trash bins that stank like old fish, sour milk, and dirty diapers. Mother had a cut under her left eye that was weeping rivulets of blood down her delicate face. Those red tears were the only ones she shed for me. Mother could make a Botticelli angel turn away in envy. She was everything that I was not, and now I was disappointing her again.

She looked golden, despite the bruise blooming on her cheek and her disheveled appearance. I raised a shaking palm to wipe a dirty streak away, but she pushed my hand down with a quick thrust.

Of course. How could I touch that flawless face after my sin? Her eyes that I envied - green as a spring day in a meadow - were blank. Even with danger hunting us, I struggled to find any hint of a relationship between us. I never would. My eyes are the color of mint under a harsh frost, with keyhole pupils. My face is at sharp angles - sharp, slanted eyes, chin, and cheeks. The only soft feature I have is my lips, which are too pouty from all my tantrums and sulking, she'd said. She had locks that tumbled in perfect ringlets of golden blonde, whereas my hair was wild tangles and twists, and yellow as a daffodil, or perhaps more like the picture of a school bus I'd seen in another book. I was strange all around - strange eyes, strange face, strange hair - nothing like my perfect Mother.

I cradled my hand to my chest as if she'd sought to cut it off. "Mother, I didn't understand!"

My mother grimaced. "You were supposed to obey me without dispute. I did all this for you, Madeline. To save you."

"Why hide me at all? Why won't you tell me why? I'm fourteen; I can handle it now. I swear!"

"Shut up, Madeline! Just stay still for now! I don't know if they found my portal. You're like a magnet for harm! I can't do this any longer! All this running and trying to change you is doing no good!"

"What do you mean, change me? I don't - "

She hissed me into silence. "What did I say? If you'd been an obedient child, I wouldn't have to do this! It's only four years. After that, everything will be fine."

Stunned by her hurtful words, I stood frozen, just as she wanted. My mother waved an arm, and I felt a painful twisting in my frame. I crumpled as the pain wrenched at my tendons, and my misery turned into a pounding that was flattening me, narrowing me. I clenched my teeth to try not to scream, but it spilled out from me in an ever-escalating crescendo.

"Shhh! You stupid girl! Are you trying to make them get us?"

"It hurts!" I shuddered from the aching in my bones. Mother reached out to me, her brow wrinkling with regret and concern. A man shouted close by, and she glanced over her shoulder. Then she disappeared, leaving me broken there in soul and spirit.

I sobbed again as the men's shouts grew nearer, and I dragged myself behind the disgusting trash bins so that I could hide from them.

From the opening of the alleyway, I heard a low growl.

I spotted what I assumed was the shadow of an animal at first. Instead, it was an overexposed negative of a husky or malamute. His eyeshine flashed red when a car drove by. I swallowed and scraped myself further into the recess behind the bins, ignoring the rotting stink coming from them. He snarled, revealing jagged white teeth, then stalked closer to me. I crossed my hands in front of my face. A wet nose touched me, then the creature sniffed. I flinched away from him.