Warden (Book 2: Lure of the Lamia) Read Free

racket that Errol almost didn’t hear the sound of something scrambling on the ground near him. He instinctively drew his dagger, and then realized with a start that he couldn’t see. The world around him was pitch black. The nymph had seemingly played a prank on him, only it had cost him his sight.
    Both terrified and furious, he swung at the place he felt he had last seen Samara. “You evil witch! You’ve blinded me!”
    “No,” came the response. “I swear I only–”
    Errol rushed the spot where the voice seemed to come from – and went sprawling as he tripped over Mobley, losing his dagger in the process. He quickly struggled to his hands and knees, then stood up.
    “Wait,” said Samara’s voice, right next to him. Errol swung a fist in that direction, at the spot the voice seemed to originate from, as fast as he could. He felt it connect, followed by a small yelp from the nymph.
    Errol dropped into a fighting stance, still unable to see but listening intently. Suddenly, his legs were swept out from under him. He landed on his back with a bone-jarring thud. Before he could recover, a weight suddenly descended on him – the nymph, straddling his chest. He was about to shift his own weight and attempt to throw her when he felt a blade (presumably his own dagger) at his throat. Errol froze.
    “Go ahead,” he said, defeated. “Kill me. It’s what I deserve for trusting you, for trusting anything that lives in the Badlands. Being blind here is a death sentence anyway.”
    Without warning, the nymph gripped his right wrist and raised it. Errol felt a comfortable and familiar object as the Wendigo dagger was thrust into his hands, then placed by the nymph at her own throat.
    “I mean you no harm, Errol Magnus,” she said, “and if you feel I have betrayed your trust then my life is yours. I ask only that you allow me to explain before you make your decision.”
    Errol, still angry, thought about how good it would feel to thrust the blade home, but decided against it. “Start talking,” he said.
    “Your human sight will return,” Samara said. “It has been taken from you temporarily in order to allow you to better learn how to commune with the Greenlife.”
    “Commune with the…you mean talk with the forest?”
    Samara laughed. “Not exactly. Humans don’t possess the necessary sensory capabilities for that type of awareness and communication. But I will teach you what I can, as fast as I can.”
    “Then let’s get started.”

 
    Chapter 3
     
    Samara spent the next hour teaching Errol how to use the forest as his eyes and extensions of his other senses. The forest greenery could recognize when animals passed near them by sensing their body heat. Leaves vibrated due to the sounds, echoes, and footsteps made by forest denizens. Grass and shrubs gauged the size and weight of travelers by virtue of how they were stepped and trod upon. In short, there were a thousand little ways that the Greenlife (as Samara called it) could collectively “see” what was going on around it.
    The trick, from Errol’s point of view, was really learning how to get that information from the plant life. The key, apparently, was the nauseating fluid the marvo had squirted into his mouth; combined with Samara’s spell, it heightened his consciousness in odd ways such that he could sense the same things that the plants around him could.
    In essence, the plant life around him hummed, giving off a subtle droning that he recognized as a form of communication. It put pictures in his head, making him aware of what the forest was observing. Errol was enraptured. He had never seen the world in this way before – had not known it was possible. As a result, even without his eyesight, he was aware of his surroundings and could walk – albeit timidly at first – without fear of tripping or running into something. According to Samara, this was an aspect of the forest talking to him – making him aware of his environs.
    In a