Six: new friends
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"So who's Madame?"
It was the natural question, Teela thought as she ducked to avoid a low-hanging branch. An important one, too. Not nearly as important as How do I get out of an enchanted forest that makes paths disappear, but definitely less hysterical than What are those things watching us from the trees?!
Because there were things. Watching. From. The. Trees.
She couldn't see them very well. In fact, for the first part of their trek through the Whispering Woods, she hadn't seen them at all. But as they'd ventured into a deeper, darker, older section of the forest, suddenly dozens of tiny, glowing eyes had begun popping up in the thick shadows, only to blink out again as soon as Teela looked straight at them. Each pair of eyes was a different color – as varied as the plant life.
Three sets of eyes in particular – purple, yellow, and green – had been following them for a while. Lately, Teela had also been hearing whispers, barely louder than rustling of the leaves, the words indistinguishable.
Granted, it was better than the black bones and red room of the fortress.
But still.
She'd drawn her staff under the pretext of using it for a walking stick, since her balance was thrown by the manacles, and now gripped it tightly.
Purple Eyes flickered in and out ten feet up an ancient, gnarled tree. She pretended not to notice.
At least the eyes provided a distraction from Bow's incessant talking. So far she'd learned that he played the harp amazingly, danced splendidly, and sang – "terribly," according to Kowl, who'd cut in to deliver that devastating blow, which had led to the sort of name-calling, sniping squabble that only truly good friends could have.
Teela had enjoyed that, especially because Kowl was the clear winner.
There had also been a great many odes to Teela's grace and beauty, which she'd tuned out. Adam had once said that she only really appreciated compliments about her fighting prowess. He hadn't been wrong.
"Aha! Yes, of course. Madame Razz," Kowl said now, fluffing his fur. He was riding on the horse's saddle, which Bow was leading – it not being practical for any human to ride with so many low branches hanging over this part of the path. "She's quite knowledgeable on the subject of magic, being a practitioner of the arts herself."
"She calls herself a simple hedgewitch, milady," Bow added, looking at Teela over the horse's back, "but the queen always said Madame's forgotten more about magic than any of us could learn in ten lifetimes."
Kowl hooted – amused, this time. " 'Forgotten?' Hardly! It's an ongoing process."
Teela looked between Kowl and Bow. "What's that mean?"
Bow laughed, scratching at the back of his neck. "You'll see, milady."
Teela frowned. She wasn't sure she liked that answer. Well, she'd escaped once today, despite impossible odds. She could do it again.
Even if she was now in an enchanted forest.
With no clear path out.
And things watching her from the shadows.
Yellow Eyes gleamed high in a tree to her left. She whipped her head up, but it was already gone.
Ugh! She couldn't stand it anymore.
"What's in the trees?" she asked Kowl, since he seemed to be the more knowledgeable one.
"Who are in the trees. And that would be the Twiggets," he replied promptly. "They're part of the Woods, and -"
"And how it got its name," Bow said. He turned and waved at the trees – or rather, at the unseen magical creatures perched there, whispering among themselves. "They're perfectly harmless, milady, I assure you."
"Unless you have ill intentions," Kowl said, scowling at Bow, who shrugged. "Which you very obviously do not, my dear," he hurried to tell Teela. "Otherwise you would never have made it past the first tree!"
"So that's why they didn't follow us in," Teela said, finally getting it. It went way beyond changing paths and forest spirits. She looked up at the venerable old trees, a little awestruck.
This forest – which filled most of the lowlands, if she remembered correctly – was a magical stronghold.
There was nothing like it on Eternia. Castle Grayskull was just a speck compared to this.
"As I said, Lady Teela, no member of the Horde may enter the sanctity of the Whispering Woods." Bow managed to make ducking under a branch look like an obeisance. "We are perfectly safe here – and if those villains should attack, I shall lay down my very life to protect you."
"Hurray," she said, deadpan.
Kowl hooted in amusement. Bow, unfazed, winked at her, then began whistling an upbeat tune that reminded Teela of the folk dance at the party… last night? Elders. The story she'd have to tell the Masters when she got home.
If, a traitorous little voice said in her mind.
They walked for two minutes short of forever, it felt like, but suddenly the forest opened up in front of them and Teela found herself blinking into the late-afternoon sun.
A small, circular meadow. On the other side, an enormous tree standing alone: this one in shades of periwinkle with white candy-floss leaves. A door and some tiny, square windows were set in the trunk. Smoke curled lazily from a chimney that jutted out of the upper branches.
Teela blinked again.
She hadn't thought people actually lived in those trees.
Okay. This place was weird.
"Here we are," Bow said cheerfully. He tossed the reins to Kowl. "See to Arrow, will you?"
With that, he strode across the meadow, calling, "Madame! Are you home?"
"His horse is named Arrow," Teela said to Kowl, one of her eyebrows lifting despite herself.
Kowl rolled his yellow eyes. "Bow has yet to be accused of subtlety."
He hooted and clicked his beak at Arrow; the horse tossed its head and snorted, then flicked its tail and started grazing on the meadow's soft, turquoise-colored grass. "There, that's sorted. Come along."
He flew after Bow, apparently without a second thought for the stranger he was leaving behind, alone, with an easy means of escape.
Teela looked behind her. The path hadn't closed itself off. But dozens of eye-lights looked back. Purple, green, and yellow were front and center.
Ugh! She pretended the shiver down her spine was only due to a cool breeze, and went to join Bow and Kowl.
"Madame!" Bow was calling, with a brisk rap on the front door. "I've brought a guest! And Kowl!"
"Just a minute, deary!" a voice sang back. It was high-pitched and nasal, with a pronounced accent and a definite old-woman quaver, but it was friendly enough for all that. "Just a minute, oh, just a minute!"
There was a series of clatters and bangs inside the treehouse, and then the door burst outward, narrowly avoiding Bow's head.
Drat.
"Bow! So wonderful to see you!" Madame Razz exclaimed. At least, Teela assumed it was her. The old lady certainly looked like a doddering hedgewitch: spindly arms and legs, a stout body, bushy white hair springing every direction beneath a tattered magician's hat, and clothes that were more patches than cloth. The toe-tips of her scuffed black boots ended in funny curlicues. Her skin, weathered, wrinkled, and liver-spotted, matched the color of the tree's bark.
She was also short. The point of her hat (which was bent double under an enormous pinwheel flower) only came up to the center of Bow's chest.
Madame grabbed Bow's face in both long-fingered, bony hands, dragged him down, and noisily kissed him on first one cheek and then the other.
"Hello, Madame," he said, smiling at her. It was different from the cocky, arrogant smile he kept using on Teela; this one was soft and fond, exactly the kind of smile you would give a daffy old lady.
Madame had already moved on, her hands stretching out towards her next victim. "And Kowl!"
"Yes, yes, very good to see you," Kowl said, hastily flapping out of her reach.
Undeterred, Madame turned to Teela. "And you must be Teela," she gushed, clasping Teela's upper arm and dragging her towards the open door. "The Twiggets have been going on and on about you, deary! Let's get you inside and do something about those nasty manacles."
"Um… thank you," Teela said, stumbling a bit on the threshold, and barely managing to duck her head in time. Madame was a lot stronger than she looked. "It's… nice to meet you?"
Madame beamed. "Such good manners! Oh, they were right -! They always are, you know! Wonderful judges of character, those dearies."
Inside, the ceiling was just high enough for Teela to stand without stooping. In between the charms, wards, amulets, and other magical bric-a-brac festooning the walls, she caught a glimpse of a spiral staircase leading upwards and a small sitting room before she was pulled into the kitchen and plunked down on a stool by the table.
Since the furniture was all built to Madame's scale, it was a little awkward. Teela's knees were mostly in her chest.
"Now, let's see…" Madame puttered around the kitchen, hat bobbing up and down as she looked for who-knows-what. It was a normal enough kitchen – not much different from the one in the palace, except for its size. Sunlight streamed in from the tiny windows. Dried herbs and flowers hung in bunches from the ceiling, and stew in a metal pot bubbled cheerfully next to a tea kettle over the fire in the hearth. "Where did I – aha! There it is."
Bow and Kowl joined them in the kitchen. Kowl landed on the table; Bow leaned against the doorframe, next to a large broom. "Anything I can do, Madame?"
Madame popped up, hat askew, a huge spellbook in her hands. Aside from the hat, she didn't really bear any resemblance to Orko, but Teela found herself strongly reminded of the little Trollan anyway. It made her smile.
"Be a dear and fix some tea," she told him, adjusting her hat. "Oh! And there's some nutbread in the cabinet, cut a few slices. You're all much too skinny!"
Bow nodded and got to work.
At the mention of food, Teela realized her last meal had been a few breakfast pastries with Queen Marlena. Her stomach rumbled.
"This spell is Shadow Weaver's work," Madame informed Teela. She thumped the book down onto the table and waved her hands over it. Magic twinkled and sparkled. The cover flipped open and the pages began turning themselves. "I'd recognize that awful stuff anywhere!"
Shadow Weaver again. Teela looked at the others in the kitchen. "Who is that?"
"The Horde's sorceress," Kowl said. "Quite an evil one, too."
"The worst!" Madame added emphatically.
Huh. The pieces still didn't make any sense, but at least Teela had more of them. She went looking for another: "The... Force Captain?... acted like Shadow Weaver was missing. She wanted to know what I'd done with her."
In the midst of pouring, Bow looked up so quickly that he spilled hot water from the kettle onto his arm instead. He didn't quite bite back the resultant yelp.
Kowl hooted and passed him a cloth. "Careful, Bow, or our new friend will see through the façade."
Bow cut him a dark look, but his next words were to Teela. "Force Captain Adora said that? Did you do something to Weaver?"
"No," Teela said, frowning. She thought back over her fortress encounter with Force Captain Adora (and wow, that simpering, syrupy name was not a good match for the soldier) and the woman with the red mask. "I mean, not that I know of. I've never heard of her."
"Well, you certainly could have," Madame said absently, peering at her spellbook, whose pages were still obediently flipping themselves. "You've got more than - Aha!" she crowed, jabbing her finger onto the page and making it freeze in place. "That's it, that's the one! Hold out your arms, deary."
Teela held out her arms. Madame waggled her fingers over the manacles, chanting, "Razzle dazzle, miggle mee, horrid handcuffs, set her free!"
Not much of a spell. But the manacles glowed – angrily, it seemed to Teela – and then split neatly down their middles, clunking to the tabletop as ordinary pieces of metal.
Madame cackled and clapped her hands together. "Haven't lost my touch!"
"Well done indeed," Kowl said. He crouched beside the manacles and poked at one experimentally with a clawed, stubby finger.
Teela, meanwhile, was rubbing the chafed skin on her forearms. "Thank you, Madame," she said sincerely.
"Oh, it was nothing," Madame said, waving her thanks away – but the pleased smile stretching her face's web of wrinkles said otherwise.
Bow leaned across them and set out a plate of sliced bread and three cups of tea, one of them Kowl-sized, all of them still gently steaming. "We'll have to get going soon, I'm afraid."
Madame tsked in disappointment. "I wish you wouldn't – it's just been the two of us here. So lonely sometimes! But of course you'll have to take Teela to the camp."
Bow nodded, sipping at his own cup of tea. "Before we leave, I wanted to ask about those enchanted arrows," he said, and Teela tuned out the conversation in favor of eating the bread, drinking her tea (surprisingly good), and thinking about her next move.
She could go to the camp, whatever and wherever that was. Bow and Kowl had so far proven themselves friendly; presumably their camp would be too.
Or she could ask to be escorted out of the Woods. Major downside to that idea: Force Captain Adora and her bat-wing buddies would probably be waiting to pounce as soon as Teela was clear of the protective magic.
No, the best choice was also the most obvious one. She'd go with Bow and Kowl, get oriented, figure out a plan for getting home.
Bow and Madame finished discussing the arrows, everyone finished their tea, and they managed to get out of the house without more than two or three rounds of hugs, noisy cheek-kissings, and admonishments to take more food.
Teela was happy to oblige. She ate another slice of bread and some kind of fruit as the three of them collected Arrow and started down another path.
"Good-bye, dearies!" Madame called after them, waving from her doorstep.
The sun was setting, adding more color to the rainbow riot of the forest, and Teela pretended she was so caught up in admiring the scenery that she didn't notice the tiny eyes and mysterious whispers dogging their trail.
"Almost there," Bow said cheerfully. He was whistling again.
"Don't be worried," Kowl told Teela, having resumed his perch on Arrow's saddle. "I assure you, everyone is perfectly friendly."
She had to laugh. "I think I'll be okay. How many people is 'everyone'?"
"Not as many as we'd like," Kowl said. "But a rather respectable number, all things considered."
Which didn't answer her question at all. Oh well. At this point, she was tired of trying to puzzle through unknowns. She was ready to deal with something straightforward. Like a fistfight. Or sleep.
The narrow trail they were following twisted through a cluster of close-growing, smaller trees, and then suddenly opened up into an immense clearing.
"Here we are, milady," Bow said. He did one of those courtly flourishes. "The Great Rebellion!"
Great was not the word Teela would have used.
Tents and small huts dotted the clearing, arranged haphazardly; some bunching around cooking fires, some standing separate. Platforms dangled from the gigantic trees that ringed the clearing, many of which had stairs and walkways linking them.
The whole thing looked… shoddy. Amateur. Painfully amateur.
And these were the people she was trusting to get her home.
"Um. Wow," Teela said, her heart sinking.
Bow grinned, oblivious to her dismay. "Isn't it magnificent? We built it ourselves, and in only two years!"
A group of children playing a ball game ran past them, with shouts of "Hi Bow!" and "Who's that?" and "I'm gonna tell the princess!"
The princess? There was a princess here? Teela looked around skeptically. None of the huts or tents seemed to be up to princessy standards. At least royalty would be familiar territory.
"As you'll see," Kowl said to Teela, "nothing here remains secret for long."
"There's… a lot of kids," she said, still looking around. You usually didn't see those in the headquarters of a rebellion. But fully a third of the camp's population seemed to be younger than she was.
The sinking feeling intensified.
Before Bow could further extol the virtues of the camp, the pack of children came flooding back in their direction, this time accompanied by two older girls.
One of the girls was carrying a spear and had a battered helmet that kept sliding down over her eyes. The other girl was unarmed and dressed entirely in shades of purple, which looked striking against her brown skin. What Teela noticed most was her hair, however: a positive riot of springy curls, reaching halfway down her back, and every bit as purple as her clothes.
The purple girl met Teela's eyes, frowned, and drew herself straighter. "Bow!" she said in an imperious tone, striding toward them. Her cloud of hair bounced magnificently with every step. "Who is this? I told you not to bring strangers to the camp!"
Bow gestured grandly at the Woods, obviously playing to the audience gathering behind the purple girl. "She's no stranger! She was being hunted down by the Horde."
The purple girl looked singularly unconvinced. Smart. She stopped a mere foot in front of Teela, her hands on her hips and her jaw set in challenge. It had carried a threat when Force Captain Blondie had done the same, but it was a ludicrous posture from someone who barely came to Teela's collarbone, and, from close range, was maybe thirteen years old and could use a few good meals.
"Identify yourself, stranger," she commanded.
Wait, was this kid in charge? Teela looked around. The rest of the camp was hanging back in a ragged circle, watching and listening respectfully.
"Teela, Captain of the Royal Guard of Eternia," she said, wary. "And you are…?"
The girl was affronted. Her eyes were purple, too, and they glowed when she narrowed them. "I am Her Highness, Princess Glimmer of the Kingdom of Brightmoon. And I'm the leader of the Great Rebellion."
Oh. So she was in charge.
"You should have seen her, milady," Bow said to the princess, inserting himself into the conversation again. He placed a hand on Teela's shoulder, then turned to include the gathered crowd. "She escaped the Fright Zone – alone! With my own eyes, I saw her fearlessly scale the cliffs of the Crimson Waste, braving fire from a Force Squad! Even after they took her prisoner, her hands shackled, she valiantly fought against them all – including Captain Adora herself!"
There were a great many gasps and murmurs in the crowd. Apparently Blondie had a reputation… and now Teela did, too.
She looked at Bow with new respect. Not a whole lot, mind. But some.
Glimmer wasn't buying it. She crossed her arms over her chest. "That's not proof, Bow. She could still be a Horde spy."
"Madame likes her," he said. It was almost a retort – something a brother would say to a sister, rather than an archer to his princess. Teela glanced between them, trying to figure out the exact relationship.
Glimmer frowned some more.
"She's very nice," Kowl put in, as if Teela wasn't standing two feet away. "And Captain Adora thinks she's done away with Shadow Weaver."
More murmurs. Glimmer, startled, looked at Teela again.
"I don't even know who that is," Teela said quickly. Best to be honest.
Glimmer's forehead puckered, and she bit her thumbnail before remembering her audience and straightening up into a regal pose again. It was a very Adam sort of move. "Well, I suppose for tonight you can stay here," she said, trying to sound authoritative. Her eyes darted around the crowd and she added, hastily, "Um – under guard, of course."
"Of course," Teela said, trying not to smile.
"In the morning I shall make a final decision about you, Captain Teela," Glimmer said, royally haughty, eyes glowing again, and Teela knew her smile hadn't been as hidden as she'd hoped.
"Most wise, Your Highness," Bow said, sweeping out his cloak and bending deeply from the waist. "As usual."
Glimmer wrinkled her nose. "Just find her a tent, Bow." She turned to the girl beside her. "You'll stand guard."
"Yes milady," the girl said immediately, bobbing. Her helmet nearly fell off, and she almost dropped her spear as well.
Glimmer huffed, turned on her heel, and stormed away, taking most of the audience with her.
Mercifully, on the walk to the promised tent, Bow turned his attention to the so-called guard, who blushed and stammered and overall provided much better sport than Teela.
"Good night, milady," Bow said when they reached the tent. He moved to take Teela's hand, probably to kiss it, but she hadn't spent all those years dodging court boys for nothing.
"Good night," she said, waving at him with one hand and covering a yawn with the other. And on that small victory, she ducked inside the tent.
There wasn't much to it: a cot, a small wooden chest, and a bowl she guessed served as a washbasin. The cot was strictly utilitarian, the kind of thing an army would use in the field, and as such consisted only of a rectangle of canvas (stained) on a wood frame (rickety), a thin blanket (moth-eaten), and a flattened, misshapen lump that might have been a pillow, once upon a time (also stained).
Home sweet home, she thought, sardonically, but she couldn't deny that the cot – or rather, the promise of sleep – was an overwhelming temptation.
She had a lot to think about. A lot to plan, a lot to figure out. But she couldn't do any of it if she was exhausted. Her father had always cautioned against that… even if he rarely took his own advice.
Teela removed her boots, tucked her staff under the pillow, and let herself collapse beneath the blanket. It smelled like horses. She didn't care.
She'd argued with her father. With Adam. By now He-Man must have told all of the Masters what had happened to her, but they had no way to know where she was or even if she was still alive.
She wished she had apologized.
But I'll make it back, she thought, fuzzy but certain, as she slipped over the edge into unconsciousness. I have to.