Green and Growing Things
Carys Crossen
He demanded her heart , as if she could tear it from her chest and hand it over , as if she were a butcher selling cuts of meat . He wanted her heart , and grew sullen and resentful when she denied him . As though her love would satisfy a debt unpaid .
He offered her the riches of his kingdom , power over the dead souls huddled down there , the title of Queen . She refused it all . What value did it hold if you reigned in Hell ?
His so-called love turned furious and spiteful . Still she would not yield . He lost all reason and flung her into the darkest and deepest of his realm ’ s dungeons , to remain there with what trinkets she had purloined . To rot there , until she surrendered .
She planted the pomegranate seed she had taken from Hell ’ s gardens and watered it with tears and her magic . It took root and grew . It was a sickly thing , stunted and pallid , but its roots and branches held the indomitable strength of green and growing things . They split the ancient rock , burdened by millennia of pressure , and let her escape her cell .
Up , up , up she climbed . It was murky and silent . Rocks jarred her feet , stone walls crumbled at her touch , she bashed her head on stalactites .
Yet she kept going . Past the skeletons of monstrous beasts , past vast subterranean seas , past slumbering giants and the ruins of ancient cities .
The first spindly roots of trees reached out to her . She grabbed them and hauled herself , hand over hand , out of the underworld . Out of Hell .
It was bitter cold , the rain lashing down . Yet the trees were there to greet her , bare boughs proud under the onslaught . She threw her arms about one , kissed the rough bark , told her tale .
When the Lord of Hell discovered her escape , and went to fetch her back , he found his way barred by roots so strong and tough that not even Hell could find a way through .
She listened to his ravings with vengeful satisfaction , until she grew bored and turned back to the world above , dancing through the woodlands in the gold light of springtime .
16 Cauldron Anthology