He laughed at the savage tone of her voice. The ground underfoot was firm despite looking water-soaked. Somehow she was building them a path and, most likely, destroying it behind them. A bullet hit a tree in front of them and ricocheted with a whine. Jewel ignored it, shouldering her way through the underbrush to keep her hands free to cast spells.
He felt the ground shake and heard the crashing of something huge moving in front of them. “It’s a black willow.”
“I know.” Jewel turned toward the tree.
“What are you doing?” He paused only to be shoved from behind by her shield. He suspected if he didn’t keep moving she might be able to drag him along behind her with it.
“I’m going to use the tree against them.” Jewel Tear crashed through a stand of tall cattails and suddenly they were face to face with a black willow. It was a huge ancient thing, nearly two hundred feet tall with a massive trunk completely blocking their way. One of the root-feet tore itself up out of the soil, stretched out and slammed it way back into the soft earth. The ground shook and the tree lurched closer. The whip-like branches snaked out and snared a rabbit darting through the cattails a dozen yards to their right. With a rustle like wind through leaves, more branches reached down and wrapped around the animal, cocooning it in green wicker, even as it lifted the squirming helpless animal upward. A muffled scream came from inside the wriggling ball. Blood was dripping from between the tightly woven branches even as it stuffed the rabbit into a huge maw where the trunk forked.
Spot yipped in fear and Tommy bit down on a curse.
“Come on.” Jewel stepped calmly over one of the splayed feet of the willow.
“Crazy elf bitch.” Tommy growled lowly. He had no choice but to follow.
“They hunt by vibration of the ground.” Jewel said. “I’m masking our footsteps. It’s blind to us.”
She led them several hundred feet deeper into the marsh. “Hold very still.” She cast another spell, second and then a third. “This way.”
From behind them there was suddenly screaming and rapid gunfire. They plunged through chokeberries, pussy willows, and nettles. There was an unnatural bridge of land through a pond filled with fairy lilies gleaming in the gathering dusk, and they stopped within sight of another towering black willow.
“Shhhh, don’t move.” Jewel whispered.
Tommy hadn’t planned on it, not even if someone set fire to his feet.
There was the deep cough of a flamethrower and dusk lit up with the sudden flare. He glanced back to see the distant tree lift up the oni with the flamethrower. It cocooned the warrior even as its massive crown caught fire. The crushing branches ruptured the weapon’s fuel tank and the entire bundle became a bright sun. The black willow seemed unable to unwrap its branches from the oni and waved the flaming ball even as it tried to back quickly away from its own limbs.
“That tree is toast.” Tommy whispered.
“I’m sending in this one.” Jewel whispered and cast a spell.
The black willow in front of them shifted as if she had prodded it hard. The world shook has it stomped toward them, and then with branches trailing over Jewel’s shield, it walked past them. Spot whimpered, burying his face into Tommy’s hair.
“Hush,” Tommy breathed. “You’re not hurt. Be brave.”
Jewel stood still, casting spell after spell, watching the black willow as it forged its way toward the burning tree.
“How did you do that?” Tommy asked.
“They like soft earth but they instinctively move away from land that’s too unstable. They can’t right themselves if they topple over.”
“You can’t let any of the oni out of this swamp alive.”
“Don’t worry. They’re all mine now.”
An hour later, they reached the far side of the marsh. Jewel Tear had set a total of four black willows onto the oni. By the second one, the oni were no longer giving chase but trying only to escape the marsh alive. Jewel Tear continually cast spells to keep the platoon trapped in the thick mud while herding the black willows into their midst. The gunshots and screaming decreased slowly until the swamp went silent. All that marked the oni was the burning tree and three well-fed black willows.
“You got them all?” Tommy wanted to be sure.
“Trust me.” Jewel Tear had no idea how impossible that was. “I got them all.”
The food bags held very little in terms of fruit and bread. Tommy didn’t want to trust the smoked meat that the oni been carrying; it could be anything from pork to human. He built a small fire and then went out to set snares for rabbits.
By the time he returned to their hidden camp Jewel Tear had worked her female magic on Spot. The boy was asleep sprawled halfway across Jewel Tear’s lap as she picked nettles out of Spot’s dark fur.
“His fur is so soft,” Jewel murmured as she ran her hand over the boy’s head. She found another little black seed caught in his fur and plucked it out.