The next morning, they trekked through the forest of black trees. They had brought no machete nor knives to cut branches with, so they had to duck down many times to avoid low-hanging branches. Daphne once got her jacket caught on one of the long, thin branches and she thought for a moment that the branch was moving on its own, gripping her tightly, but Jenny pulled her away and she dismissed the thought as nonsense.
The two pigeons, Leicester and Trafalgar, flew overhead and occasionally came down to tell them directions or warn them of a particular dense cluster of black trees. It was hard going, but having two birds on their side helped, since they at least knew where the King of Trees' court was.
Finally, they came to a large circular clearing, where the black trees stopped. Instead, they saw that there were white roots, four of them, that converged in the middle of the clearing and became a large white tree, taller than any of the black trees. The color of the tree hurt Daphne's eyes and she closed them for a moment and when she opened them again, the tree wasn't a tree anymore.
It was a man. A man that was as tall as the tree, a man that loomed overhead.
It wore a suit or an approximation of a suit and its arms were long and thin and they curved, like tendrils, and Daphne could see that its skin was made of white bark and its face was white bark, blank and empty, and without eyes it looked at her and she felt tiny.
This was the King of Trees.
She looked at Jenny and Jenny was on one knee, so Daphne lowered herself to one knee as well. Even the pigeons had stopped moving and were bowing to the King of Trees, bowing in terror, Daphne thought.
She didn't know how long she stayed like that, down on one knee, but then she heard a voice say, "You may rise."
It didn't sound like a voice the King of Trees would use, so when Daphne stood up and saw that there was a man who stood by the King (and looked quite small in comparison), she was not surprised.
"Hello," she said. The King looked down at her.
The man said, "I am his mouth. I speak his Words. What is it you want?"
"Thank you for seeing me," Daphne said. She was still scared, but knew enough to stay polite. "I have recently come here through a Door and now I seek a way back home."
The King of Trees stood there like, well, a tree. If it was displeased by her presence, it didn't indicate so, nor did it indicate if it was pleased or bored or any sort of emotion. The man by its side, however, looked somewhat tired.
After a minute, the man said, "He can take you to Home Again. But there is a task you need to complete first."
A thought popped into Daphne's head and she almost said, "The broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West," but she caught herself and instead asked, "What is it?"
"Nothing," the man said. "You must find a piece of Nothing and bring it to him. And then he will guide you through the Black Leaves to Home Again."
"Um, I don't really...I mean..." Daphne was confused. A piece of Nothing? What did that mean? "I don't exactly know where to find..."
"You will find Nothing in the Nowhere City," the man said. "Go now, before he gets impatient."
Daphne thought the man was exaggerating, as the King of Trees didn't look impatient. But then again, it didn't look patient, either, so she and Jenny and the pigeons turned and walked away, back to the shore.
She didn't say anything on their walk back, but she was thinking of their impossible task: to find Nothing in a place that was Nowhere. It almost was easier to just give up, but then she remembered Captain Brown and Jenny's tears and she resolved that they would not be wasted.
She would find Nothing and she would make her story end with meaning.
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