"We are dying, and I shall be the first to go." Ryl sat at her root and shivered. She grimaced with each frail movement, and the other women offered her words of comfort.
Lyra's voice rose above them. "It is Gorduin. He must be stopped."
"How? We cannot leave the forest for long enough to confront him," Ryl replied.
"One of us has yet to be linked to her tree."
There was a hushed gasp among the women.
"You mean your daughter?" Ryl finally said.
"Yes. I suggest I leave and bring Kerna here. She is the only one of us who can stand against Gorduin."
"But you will die if you leave your tree."
"If I gather all of our magic, it should sustain me long enough to return with her."
The night grew into the women's silence. Crickets and cicadas played their evening symphony and the call of a nocturnal animal accentuated the moment.
"She is but sixteen; her tree is not yet ready," Ryl said.
"Yes, she is young."
"She is our future."
"Again, correct. But, I can think of no alternative."
There was a murmur among the women. Their magic would not be easily given. But Gorduin was descended from the wizard whose curse had tied them to their trees; they would not take his threat lightly.
Finally, Ryl spoke for the grove.
"Take the magic. We will die either way."
)
