a charming smile, as though I was happy she’d found this little bit of gold.
“We need to get back down again, don’t we?” asked Ali. “The Shore of the Dead is supposed to be at the base of the tree, beyond Yggdrasill’s roots.”
I nodded. Instead, we’d been carried upward into the tree’s canopy.
I was reaching for my notebook when a gust of wind shook the leaves. As it did, the branch trembled violently, and Ali and I both grabbed hold of a leaf to keep from being thrown off.
But as soon as it had come, the gale passed.
“Okay, my dead friend,” Ali said. “Let’s get down there fast before we’re blown out of this tree.”
I held the notebook up as I quickly wrote, We’re going to have to keep moving.
I heard a low rumbling noise, and it took me a moment to recognize what it was, to remember that feeling. Ali clutched her stomach, and it came back to me. Hunger. Not for souls, the way I felt it, but for food.
Of course she needed to eat. Even Night Elves needed sustenance. I’d spent so many years undead that I’d nearly forgotten how a normal body worked.
Quickly as I could, I wrote, I’ll find you something to eat.
She wrinkled her nose. “In the land of the dead? I might wait till we get back to Boston, just grab a muffin or something.”
Just then, another gust shook the tree, and we both lurched forward.
Chapter 24
Ali
I grasped the stem of a leaf to steady myself, my arms around the base. When the gale finally stopped, I turned to look at Marroc. He was beckoning me toward the main trunk.
As I walked behind him, I looked at the branch under my feet. Here, there were plenty of leaves to grab, but further toward the trunk, there was a long, bare stretch of bough.
“Marroc,” I began, “when we get to the bare part of the branch, we won’t have anything to hold on to if the wind comes.”
He held up his pair of daggers. His meaning was clear: he’d use them to catch hold.
Guess I could do the same. “Skalei.” My knife appeared in my hand.
With Marroc in the lead, we walked along the branches, moving back to the main trunk. My muscles were tense, and I was ready to snatch for one of the nearest leaves at any moment. I stayed close to Marroc, too, in case I needed to grab him.
Luckily, we reached the fork without any gales threatening to topple us. And as the branch grew wider, I felt a bit more secure. Nearly as wide as one of Boston’s streets, this bough itself was bigger than any tree I’d ever seen.
When we reached the main trunk, Marroc looked at me, his pale eyes gleaming in the darkness like the blades of his daggers. With a seductive smile, he motioned me closer, and I hesitated. The look in his eye was always that of a predator, which made me want to keep my distance. But when he pointed at his shoulder, I understood I was supposed to get on his back again.
“Like at the Citadel?” I asked.
He nodded and crouched, offering me his massive shoulders. I climbed on, wrapping my arms around him from behind. His smoky scent whispered over me.
From there, he took one of his daggers and jabbed it into Yggdrasill’s trunk. Then he stabbed the other dagger into the bark. We were still above the main branch here, so I gathered this was some sort of test.
Good thing, too, because after a moment, both daggers tore out, and we slid back to the branch.
Marroc growled with frustration. When he shot me a look, I saw his eyes glowing, and I felt heat emanating from his skin.
Before I could say another word, he leapt up and slammed his daggers into the trunk. We hung for a moment, but again the bark crumbled, and we dropped back to the branch. It was obvious that the bark of the main trunk wouldn’t support our weight.
Side by side, we stood on the main branch, peering off into the darkness.
Marroc let out a sigh, then wrote in his notebook, I’ll jump down and find another tool to help us.
Immediately, I thought of the yawning darkness below us. “You’d survive a fall that long and be able to get back up again in one piece?”
He looked unconcerned as he shrugged.
“That doesn’t instill a lot of confidence. Besides, how are you going to get back