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PROLOGUE

A Tale Without an Ending

Once upon a ti that, touched by the earth’s spirit, bore a scattering of ic sparkled in its cold, pure water It was only a little s into the world—tiny bits of goodness born of the tiny bits of ic

There is a certain sort of evil that cannot abide happiness, even such hu

Such an evil ca victims from those who came to seek the little surcease it offered Eventually, even the earth’s ic could not cleanse the evil froic was turned to darker uses

Thus died a little joy in the world, and evil was satisfied for a time

This evil held the now-polluted spring, one way and another, for a very long while Tirewprey to it Soic, someti the world of any good it could find

It beca once had, to do a little good in a world now bleak and dark On the evil one’s webs caht other monsters The evil deemed it no more of a meal than a thousand others like it Still, it could not, by virtue of what it was, allow such a one to live It set a snare to catch one as a hero—for heroes are delicious when they fall It set a snare to trap a monster because even evil fears monsters, a little

The one who sprang the trap was truly a ered the snare was also a hero

But this one was also an artist, and not just any artist Such an artist, he was, as found beauty and joy in the world and shared it for all to see An artist who, like the spring had, spread little ics around and left happiness where there was none before

An artist such as that was a bigger mouthful than evil, even such an old and wicked evil as this, could s easily

Much was lost in the battle, and it cost both sides dearly As far as anyone knows, the fire of the battle burns still

CHAPTER 1

This was bad This was so very bad

He ran full tilt, ghosting through the trees The branches and brambles reached out and extracted their price in blood and flesh for running at such speed through their territory He could feel the ground absorb his blood and his sweat—feel it stir at the taste Dangerous Feeding the earth with his blood when he was so upset was not wise

He almost slowed his feet

No one was chasing him

No one had even known he was there They’d seen the trees who’d obeyed his will, but they had not seen hiht have to answer to her for the trees

She’d told him to run, and he had paused to call the trees That was not how their bargain was supposed to work But he couldn’t just let them take her, not when it ithin his power to stop it

Think Think Think The words were his, but he heard theive him rules The first rule was think

It was funny that everyone believed that she was the danger, that she was the crazy one Very funny—and his lips stretched in a grin only the forest could see It wasn’t amusement that caused his feral sh it was fueled by an anger, a rage so deep that the earth, aroused by his blood, rose eagerly to do his bidding The earth, out of all the eleer for violence

He could just go back Go back and teach the someone he loved …

No