Taboo Online

Chapter 16: The Strand Beneath His Skin

The next tremor sent broad ripples across the artificial lake.

Water near the shore bulged upward as thick silver roots expanded beneath it. Several surfaced for a moment, gleaming under the surviving lights, before curving down into the lakebed.

Aelira stood beyond the moving ground with a Rootkeeper supporting her. She pressed one hand against a newly exposed root, and the Heartroot carried her warning into the destination network.

The arriving core will draw heavily through the lake connection once enough of it reaches Earth.

Lauren passed the meaning to Red Hound.

"Clear the lakeside route," he ordered. "No vehicles or equipment between the destination tree and the water."

A Bureau engineer watched lines race across the scanner in his hands. "The root mass under the lake is still increasing. The eastern access road may buckle."

"Close it now. I don’t want anyone discovering that after the pavement opens."

The engineer moved away, already relaying the order.

A root tore through an abandoned cable trench near the anchor zone. Stones, metal brackets, and broken sections of conduit burst from the ground and flew toward Lauren.

The panel Rhea had kept active crossed the distance before the debris reached her. It caught the impact, and the glowing cracks already running through its surface widened along one edge.

When the last fragments fell, Rhea called the panel back. It hovered beside her shoulder, flickering badly enough that parts of it seemed ready to disappear.

Lauren turned her covered face toward the sound.

"You shouldn’t keep forcing those panels. They were already unstable when you summoned them here."

"I know." Rhea rested one hand against Lauren’s shoulder. "They still answer, and you still need them. Let me decide when they’ve reached their limit."

The exhaustion beneath her firmness ended the argument. Lauren returned her attention to the trunk.

Another system window opened as the roots beneath the lake thickened.

[Central Heartroot core transfer: 31%.]

[Destination network expanding.]

[Surface emergence predicted.]

The ground several yards in front of Lauren split apart.

Silver bark appeared beneath the soil, wide enough that five adults standing shoulder to shoulder would not have covered it. The ancient wood rose only a few feet before stopping, leaving most of the transported core caught somewhere inside the bridge.

The elves beyond the outer line fell silent.

Aelira’s fingers tightened around the Rootkeeper’s arm as she stared at the first living section of the original Central Heartroot to emerge through the younger Earth-grown network.

Lauren felt no relief.

Too much of the core had entered the bridge for the Heartroot to retreat, yet most of it remained in Lethariel. If the connection failed now, the ancient tree would be torn between two worlds.

She searched for Luke again.

His familiar warmth remained beneath the Heartroot’s current, supported by Iris’s golden lifeline. Beside both, Lauren sensed a thin pressure colder than anything else in the connection.

She tried to follow it.

The transfer surged before she could get close.

Pain shot through her wrists, and the living support tightened along her spine. Rhea caught one shoulder before Lauren could pitch forward.

"What happened?"

"There’s something near Luke. I felt it before the core moved again."

"Do you know what it is?"

"No."

Rhea looked toward the original Heartroot wood pushing through the soil. "Wait for the next lull. If you chase it during a surge, you may lose the part of the bridge you’re supposed to hold."

Lauren wanted to keep searching, but the next pulse dragged against her arms hard enough to prove Rhea right. She let the cold pressure slip from her awareness and focused on keeping the young trunk steady.

The protected return zone had become a small island above the Warden’s Forge.

Almost everything beyond the silver boundary was gone. The last unsupported walls had collapsed into the Forge, leaving Luke and the others exposed to the smoke and heat below.

A black extraction tower leaned as pieces of the abandoned shell struck its supports. The structure collapsed across several machines, releasing a burst of orange fire that climbed toward the return zone before the Heartroot’s silver light forced it aside.

Dorian lowered his head against the heat without loosening his hold on Kellan.

Iris examined the bindings around Kellan’s thigh. Blood had spread through the inner wrapping, but the outermost layer remained dry.

"We’re almost out of clean wrapping."

Kellan looked toward Luke and the transfer window above him.

A new message appeared.

[Central Heartroot core transfer: 57%.]

[Source environment collapse accelerating.]

[Prepare for emergency return.]

"Fifty-seven percent," Dorian said.

Kellan drew a careful breath. "Then Luke keeps the lifeline."

"Until your bleeding says otherwise," Iris replied. "If it soaks through that outer layer, the line goes back."

"I know. If I go quiet, put it back immediately."

Dorian tightened his arm around Kellan’s hip. "You’re not going quiet."

Kellan turned his head toward him. "Then keep me talking instead of making promises."

Dorian looked away, but his grip remained steady.

Luke heard them through the pressure filling his head. He wanted to tell Iris to return the lifeline now, but another pull from the Heartroot stole his breath before he could force out the words.

The roots around Luke’s wrist began loosening as the core moved farther into the passage. For the first time since the bridge opened, maintaining contact depended on his own failing arm.

He spread his numb fingers and kept his palm flat against the silver surface.

The Heartroot advanced another fraction, and Luke’s arm followed.

Pain returned without warning, though it did not come from his ruined shoulder. A narrow freezing line tightened inside his wrist and traveled up his forearm.

Luke gasped.

Iris moved closer. "Where is it?"

"Inside my arm."

"Your shoulder too?"

"No. This is different."

He eased his wrist backward without allowing his palm to leave the core.

The moving Heartroot dragged his arm forward again.

Silver-green light passed through the skin around his wrist and revealed something darker underneath. The strand was so thin that Luke saw it only when the Heartroot’s mana brightened around his hand.

The transfer slowed.

[Central Heartroot core transfer: 64%.]

[Unexpected source resistance detected.]

[Core transfer slowing.]

Iris stared at the dark line beneath his skin.

"The roots released your wrist. You’re maintaining contact on your own."

"I know."

"Keep the palm down. Don’t pull hard enough to break the bridge."

Luke relaxed his arm and tried to let the core move beneath his hand. The bark should have slid beneath his palm while their contact remained unbroken.

Instead, the dark strand cinched around something inside his wrist and dragged his forearm after the retreating core.

The living roots had released him, but the pressure beneath his skin had not. It was pulling Luke into the passage with the Heartroot.