Page 5 of The Tree of Spirits
“Well, then.” Mom wiped her wet eyes. “I should get moving too. I have to get these supplies back to the lab.” She patted her satchel.
Nodding, I headed toward the Distributor’s shop. But I spun back around just before I reached it. I ran back to Mom and wrapped my arms around her.
“Everything is going to be all right,” I told her. “You’ll see. Soon, Dante and I will be Knights. And we’re going to make this world a better place. For all of us.”
“I believe in you, Savannah,” Mom told me, then continued on her way.
I stood there for a few minutes, alone in the doorway of the Distributor’s shop, watching, waiting. All the while, the sky grew darker and darker.
I heard thunder…and lots of it. Any moment now, the sky was going to split open and drown the city in a deluge of rain.
Chanting hummed in the air. And the muffled rumble of lots and lots of footsteps, growing ever louder. A parade of protesters was marching down the street, carrying large, colorful signs.
End the tyranny!
Bring back democracy!
Expel the Government!
The anti-Government protesters certainly carried bold, defiant signs, but they were too afraid to show their faces. Every one of them wore a mask.
“Halt!” shouted a Watcher, one of the General’s soldiers. The speakers in his big, black helmet really amplified the volume of his voice.
There were more of them. Eight Watchers, armed and ready. They shoved their way through the parade, grabbing for the protestors’ masks, attempting to unveil them.
“The valiant do not prey on the vulnerable!” Someone in black armor jumped down from a rooftop, landing in a nimble crouch.
“The Rebels,” I muttered as two more landed beside the first.
The Watchers surged toward them. One of the Rebels let out a magic war cry, and the ground rumbled in response, knocking the Watchers off their feet.
The protestors cheered.
“Conner implied that the Rebels might know something about the recent attacks on Apprentices,” I said to myself as I watched Rebels and Watchers clash. “I need to talk to them. I need to learn what they know.”
But Conner had also told me to stay far away from the Rebels. He’d said they were dangerous.
And, watching them now, I couldn’t argue with that. It was no wonder, given that they were former Knights.
They were true magic powerhouses. It took the three Rebels under half a minute to knock out the eight Watchers—and only a few seconds more to tangle them up in black ribbons and tie them to the fence that separated the Magic Emporium from the Black Obelisk. Then they topped it all off with a big black bow. That seemed to be their signature move.
And then they were gone. Just gone. Before I could follow them.
“Well, so much for that plan,” I muttered. “I wonder where they?—”
Loud barking cut me off. A white husky was running down the street. She came to a stop right in front of me.
“Wolf?” I dropped to my knees and scratched her behind the ears.
She barked in greeting, but it wasn’t a happy bark. It was a sad cry, pulsing with fear and desperation.
“What are you doing here alone?” I asked her. “Where’s Marlow?”
Wolf let out an agonizing yelp. Dread sank like a stone in my stomach.
“Did something happen to him?”
Something was wrong. I could feel it. Marlow was in trouble.
