Chapter 21

Aris plunges into the Bone Woods’ mist to escape pursuing immortal knights and finds an unnerving silence that swallows sound and direction. Disoriented and fighting the lingering pull of a sleeping elixir, she discovers the forest is made of bone and bears deep claw marks, confirming the Bone Woods’ lethal reputation.

A telepathic, towering skeletal being—the Gardener—manifests, overwhelms Aris’s mind, and toys with her thoughts. He discerns her mission and speaks the name Vander Evren, warning that summoning Vander would be a death sentence. Testing her resolve, the Gardener demands payment to let her leave.

Aris refuses to surrender her sword and bargains instead. The Gardener insists on a cherished memory; starving and desperate to continue her quest, Aris agrees. He extracts and consumes a happy memory from her tear, sparing her life and advising her to run, noting he is not the deadliest thing in the woods.

With the Gardener gone, the forest’s sounds surge back—growls and heavy footfalls from a circling pack. Aris flees and climbs a bone tree as massive saberwolves surround and ram the trunk, displaying alarming cunning.

Forced lower by the swaying tree, Aris narrowly avoids their fangs until one leaps high using another’s back as a springboard. A glancing fang cut injects venom, numbing her leg. As the wolves slam the tree again, Aris loses her grip and falls, poisoned and imperiled.