The Burning Grove Read online

  Star Druid 2

  The Burning Grove

  Skyler Grant

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Afterword

  1

  “I don’t sense anything, Master,” Jia said, right before a thornhound knocked her from her feet as it leapt from the underbrush.

  Banok sensed more than his apprentice did. There were six thornhounds waiting for their moment to strike, and something stronger as well.

  “Get her back on her feet,” Banok told Delilah as he readied his staff and headed for the stronger presence. The Grove was powerful here, massive trees jutting out of the ruins of what were once skyscrapers, thick and thorny vines and bushes threaded through the remains of open streets. Life was so dense it rendered even life-sense nearly useless, but this was Banok’s Grove.

  With a twirl of his staff he batted two hounds aside that leapt from him in a synchronized motion. They were silent as they melted back into the brush.

  Despite looking a bit like giant wolves, thornhounds were flora, not fauna. They were hunters of the Grove and could range far and bring back prey. Greenish-grey in color they were lean, and instead of fur were covered by a thick pelt of layered leaves.

  Banok was lashed by a vine with enough force to send him soaring backwards. He angled his staff behind him and it dug into crumbling concrete as Banok fed lifeforce into his muscles, healing the injuries just inflicted at the same time.

  Not another thornhound. Six-legged, armor-plated, short and low to the ground with numerous vines jutting from beneath a shell. It looked a bit like a turtle, albeit one that hit like a rhinoceros.

  Jia was doing well against the wolves. Four had formed a semicircle around her and she’d adopted the Adello form with her staff, a flexible and defensive fighting form that was meant to keep opponents at a distance.

  Banok studied his own foe, letting his senses take it in. Thornhounds he had encountered before, but this particular creature was certainly something else.

  More vines lashed towards him and Banok conjured fire. The blast of heat tore into them, rendering them into ash, although the fire rippled off the armor shell.

  That was new. It wasn’t a surprise, given as closely as Banok and the Grove were linked, that it was able to draw upon some of his fire immunity. It simply hadn’t happened before.

  Banok had other tricks. Elementalism still wasn’t his strength, a master of the arts could have done far more with less power, but Banok had lots of power. Reaching into the earth, he pulled and shards of rock erupted, splaying to all sides beneath the vine-turtle.

  It tumbled onto its side, new vines appearing as it sought to right itself. Banok closed in, delivering a flow of lifeforce to his muscles as he struck in with his staff and pushed. The vine-turtle topped over onto its back.

  There were several long moments of flailing by vines. Then the vine-turtle exploded into a puff of spores.

  Right, if the Grove wanted to steal from the design of turtles, it was going to need to improve it a bit more.

  Banok took a moment to catch his breath and turned to watch Jia finish up with the thornhounds. There were only two left and Jia was doing well, fighting defensively and making sure they both couldn’t approach her at once, while she waited for the last moment.

  Jia was the most advanced apprentice the Druid Order had. Blonde, blue-eyed and incredibly perky she’d been with the Order several years, long enough that when her mistress had gone off-world she’d accompanied her. Like most off-world druids they’d come under attack, and Jia had survived. Her mistress did not.

  Banok had wound up accepting her as his apprentice, because they were short of those able to provide advanced training.

  Delilah saw that Banok was done with his fight and moved over to stand behind him. “I only helped out a little, she’s not bad.”

  “Not good enough. Not yet,” Banok said.

  The Grove pushed him, tested him, just as it pushed and tested all of the druids. Banok knew that was because of his own thoughts, his own insecurities about the weakness of the Order coming to the fore. It also wasn’t something he seemed to be able to change. Any druid venturing far from the camp came under attack, and while the Grove wouldn’t murder them, it was more than happy to dump the careless, badly mauled victims at the outskirts of camp.

  Jia struck a two-handed blow of the staff over the head of one thornhound. It exploded into spores, but this gave the remaining one the opportunity to leap on her, the force of the spring knocking her to the ground.

  Banok started to step forward. Delilah restrained him with a hand on his chest.

  “She’s got this,” Delilah said.

  Banok felt it then, the flow of magic. Subtler than his own.

  Jia’s fist was surrounded in a nimbus of flame as she brought it around and slammed it into the side of the wolf. One, two, three punches before her hand penetrated the hide and it vanished in a puff of ash and spores.

  Banok was proud. That wasn’t something Jia had learned before, it was one of the new teachings.

  2

  “That was careless,” Banok said.

  “You were done with yours, Master. You were getting bored watching me,” Jia said with a grin.

  “This isn’t a joke. You were careless, you were fine playing defense.”

  “I was armored and controlled my fall. I had it,” Jia said.

  Delilah was silent, arms folded. Both Banok and Jia were in body armor beneath their druid robes. Banok had made that standard for the Order whenever venturing away from camp. Delilah was dressed far more casually in a pair of hiking boots and upscale wilderness attire.

  Banok’s further lecturing was cut off as people stepped into view. They wore body armor too and carried rifles. Behind them were people in business attire, not at all suitable for the Grove.

  They were too clean, too fresh, to be survivors of the Grove’s growth.

  Despite the massive devastation caused when the Grove had first formed, it was still only a small portion of the planet’s surface. In total about ten percent of it had returned to nature, a slow and relentless creep forward that the city dwellers had been able to slow but not stop. The Grove was now surrounded by a massive wall, studded with weapons to fight back the beasts living there. A constant war. Billions of people still lived on this world, for all
that Banok thought they shouldn’t.

  The Grove would get to them, in time. Banok was sure of that, yet few were willing to abandon their homes and their wealth. They’d tried to interfere with the druid’s landing ships already. Banok now had a sizable mercenary fleet in orbit just to allow his people to come and go.

  Being here though? It was reckless, stupid, and it was no wonder the Grove defenses had been so riled.

  “You are far from home and in a place you do not want to be. Thornhounds are only some of the lesser perils of the Grove,” Banok said to the new arrivals.

  “That is my building you are standing in front of. In fact this is my whole damned block,” said one of the suited men, a fellow perhaps in his fifties.

  “You came to bury your people?” Jia asked.

  The man snorted. “Little chance of that, there are too many of them. But there are records, possessions.”

  “Our guns barely did anything,” said one of the escorts.

  Banok wasn’t surprised. City-planets tended to have pretty strict weapon controls. The guards were likely armed with the best they had available, but they were low caliber and high-output. Thornhounds had incredible regenerative abilities, and unless you hit them hard enough to really tear them apart they’d just keep on coming.

  The group had probably got caught in the open. If they’d retreated into a structure and focused their fire on a doorway, their weapons fire combined should have caused enough damage to keep the thornhounds at bay.

  Banok wasn’t going to tell them that. No need to offer them suggestions, not when the Grove that was all that stood between his people and theirs.

  “I don’t care why you came. The Grove is not a place you should be. This world is not a place you should be,” Banok said.

  “It’s our world. Not yours,” said one of the guards with a glare. He wasn’t alone, several others nodded.

  This called for a diplomatic solution, but Banok was no diplomat.

  “I am the Master Druid. I did this, what you see around you. It was my actions that took your world, perhaps your homes, perhaps your families,” Banok said.

  “I’m not dressed for killing off a swarm of angry villagers,” Delilah said.

  “Master wouldn’t kill them. He’s a good guy,” Jia said.

  “Oh, child. He’s really not,” Delilah said.

  The words had been enough to prompt the guards to raise their rifles.

  Banok didn’t so much see as felt Delilah begin to move her fingers, subtle flows of magic being woven. A defensive shield, if needed.

  “You can try that if you want. I perhaps deserve it. But you were no match for the creatures of the Grove that hunted you, and they were no match for us. Strength matters, and you’re not strong enough,” Banok said, looking between them.

  “No leafy hides on you,” said one of the soldiers.

  Delilah rolled her eyes. “Well, the sheer idiocy is making me feel better about this.”

  Jia said, “He doesn’t mean that like it sounds. We were here to protect you today, but we won’t always be. The Grove is dangerous even for us. For the sake of your families, find a way to live away from it.”

  “You think it’s that easy? Most of us were barely getting by before you did what you did,” said one of the guards.

  Banok had to admit there might be a point. Relocation was hard, and he’d made many survivors destitute.

  “Those who want to go, I’ll arrange transport. See you to the next major station. I won’t help beyond that, but if you’re trapped, you don’t have to be,” Banok said.

  The guns half-heartedly lowered.

  “Not good enough,” said the older man who had spoken earlier.

  “We’re leaving. If you want to die, you can try shooting us,” Banok said, motioning to the others.

  3

  Fortunately there were no surprises getting back home to the druid encampment, composed of over fifty tents now. The Grove objected to anything much more advanced and given how destructive the Grove’s objections could be, a settlement of tents was better than none at all.

  “I’m going to freshen up,” Delilah said, giving a wave and a waggle of her fingers before she headed off.

  “Your girlfriend is nice,” Jia said.

  “Not my girlfriend. Not exactly,” Banok said. The reality of that was complicated. Banok seemed to have a lot of complicated relationships with women these days. His connection with Astra had done maddening things to his sex-drive as well as assured that his partners tended to get solid jolt of magical power out of the encounters.

  Banok wasn’t sure if that was why Delilah stuck with them, or if it was something more. Spellweavers were a secretive lot. Still, Banok was happy to have her around whatever her reasons for doing so.

  “Uh huh,” Jia said innocently.

  Banok led the way through the encampment, getting nods from druids in passing. Their numbers had continued to grow. Nyx had rigged beacons set to send out on the druid’s emergency frequency and Cleo had dropped them at systems which were major hubs. Over a hundred had found their way back, along with several transports of apprentices.

  The training grounds were active—they always were. Banok had made daily martial practice a requirement. A few words were enough for him to claim a stretch of the field for him and Jia.

  “Training, Master? We just fought, we won,” Jia said.

  “And I got to watch you. You did well, but there are some things to work on. Staff out, Adello form,” Banok said.

  Jia smiled and pulled her staff from her back, her stance shifting to take on the basics of the defensive posture.

  Banok readied his own staff. His form shifted to the Denoulli, a stance that kept his center of gravity low. It lacked much in the way of mobility, but it had strong defenses and was capable of powerful strikes.

  Banok advanced slowly, delivering several long sweeps of the staff. Wood clattered as Jia played defense. She fended off his first two blows and drove him back with an extended strike.

  “You’re not cheating today, Master? I can tell. Not afraid that I’ll kick your ass?” Jia asked.

  Jia was as optimistic as she was perky, and not all that humble. Banok appreciated that lack of humility in a way. Jia had a lot of the skills to back it up. Her previous master hadn’t neglected her training, and in truth she was already better at staff combat than most members of the Order.

  That didn’t mean she was good enough.

  Banok repeated the sequence once more. There, her left foot was out of position. Banok ducked low under a vicious swing the foot had telegraphed and swept his staff upwards, stopping the blow just under her chin. “Freeze. Do you know the mistake?”

  “My foot, I was going for extra power and telegraphed my intentions,” Jia said, remaining frozen.

  Banok pulled his staff away and resumed his form. “You did it during the fight earlier. Thornhounds might not notice, but you can’t depend on that. The Grove is smart, it knows us.”

  It was Jia who played offense this time, a blinding flurry of strikes that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. None had much strength, but two scored on Banok in quick order on his shin and shoulder.

  Jia was trying to impress him. The shift into the Djall form had been flawless. Against an unprepared opponent the storm of blows could be devastating, serving as both a distraction and prelude to a few more precise strikes to follow.

  It also had its vulnerabilities. The rapid staff work required a constantly shifting grip. Instead of playing defense against the light blows, Banok swung the tip of his shaft upward, catching hers between her hands just as she was delivering another jab to his shoulder.

  The force this dislodged the staff from Jia’s hands. A spin of Banok’s staff knocked it down and away, and Jia was caught on the back of the knee by her own weapon as it flew free.

  The rest of Banok’s attack missed though, a thrust forward avoided by Jia who was already rolling in a dive away, coming up in a cr
ouch beside her staff and having it in hand a moment later. Jia charged, using the staff almost like a spear and trying to impale Banok through his midsection.

  Banok turned out of the way, but his apprentice was fast. The blow caught him in the side. It might have been enough to break a rib. In response, if aimed a little higher at her head, the strike he instead slammed at her back might have cracked Jia’s skull rather than sending her sprawling face-down in the dirt.

  “Meanie,” Nyx shouted, flying into the arena and circling Banok’s head to kick him in the ears. The fairy’s wings buzzed furiously. “Be nice to your apprentice.”

  Banok swatted useless around his head. “Be nice to me. Tell her you’re fine, Jia.”

  “I’m fine,” Jia said, spitting out some grass. “Mostly.”

  4

  “Nyx, is there any reason you are interfering in my training?” Banok asked.

  “I’m about to test the new transmitter. Thought you should be there in case things go seriously bad,” Nyx said.

  Nyx had been working for awhile on upgrading their resources. The transmitter was the most important part of that. Most requirements they could fulfill off-world if needed. Clothing and even foodstuffs could be sent in, but they needed a working transmitter. Without that, they couldn’t properly communicate with the mercenaries protecting them in orbit, and that made it almost impossible for supply vessels to land.