Page 45 of The Tree of Spirits
“Hey, do you want to get your tree hauled away or not?” I asked her.
“Ok, ok.” She backed away, lifting her hands in the air.
“Thanks, by the way,” I said to Ansel.
“If the General finds out about this and calls me in for an inquisition, I’ll tell him you made me do it.” He threw me a crooked smile, then continued typing.
I snorted. “Fair enough.”
“But, seriously, no problem,” he said. “Actually, you did me a favor. You gave me an excuse to get away from your friend Kylie. She wants me to try to lift fingerprints off your necklace so I can tell her who made it.”
Rane blinked. “You can do that?”
“I guess. But I told Kylie that I couldn’t.”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”
“Hey, I get it, Savannah. I get wanting a little privacy in your life. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t want people trying to figure out who my ‘mystery Knight’ is.”
“I can’t believe they’restillon about that,” I groaned.
Ansel shrugged. “Apprentices and Knights are teenagers. And teenagers love to gossip, especially about people’s secret boyfriends.”
Rane perked up. “Wait, you have a secret boyfriend, Savannah?”
“Two secret boyfriends,” Ansel told her. “At least if you listen to the Castle’s gossip wheel.”
“Which you totally shouldnotlisten to.” I drummed my fingers against the tabletop. “So, Ansel, could you send out an anonymous message to every employee in both Raytan’s and Isidora’s companies?”
“Sure.” He started typing. “What should it say?”
“Tell them that the Watchers found something at the explosion site today. Tell them there’s…a magical fingerprint or signature or whatever—just make it sound all techy—on some of the debris. Tell them that the Watchers are going to use it to reveal the culprit behind the explosion.”
Ansel’s fingers danced across the keyboard. “Done. Should I send it?”
I read what he’d written, and it sounded much more technical and convincing than what I’d said. I really needed to get myself an Alchemist dictionary.
“Yes, please send it now,” I told him.
“Savannah, you do realize the debris from the explosion is all locked up securely in an evidence locker deep inside the Black Obelisk?” Rane reminded me as Ansel sent off the message.
“I know,” I told her.
“So how are you going to steal it?”
“Who said anything about stealing anything?” I replied with a smile. “All we need to do is wait. And watch.”
CHAPTER 8
THE HOOK
The Spirit Tree was a living monument of magic, a crossroads at the center of the Interchange. Its branches seemed to sway at a speed outside of normal time and space, like they werenowandthenandwill be—all at the same time.
“Every Spirit Tree in the Many Realms is unique. Each one tells a different story, but they are all beautiful. I never grow tired of staring at them,” Rane said, smiling up at the tree.
“It is magnificent,” Ansel agreed.
Wind rustled the tree’s silver branches, flicking off the blossoms like someone blowing out the candles on a birthday cake. The purple and blue flowers whirled around us like a tornado, so thick that I couldn’t see past them.
