Page 64 of The Tree of Spirits
The third Knight. That meant there were two more of them. And I had a pretty good idea who they were.
Thinking of Kato and Conner made my hands sweat and my throat grow all tight. I really hoped they were safe out there in the Park.
I wet my lips. “Are Polymages…more powerful than other Knights?”
Jareth snorted. “They certainly think so.”
“She taught herself to teleport, Jareth. She is clearly very powerful,” Orion pointed out.
Jareth held up his hands. “Hey, I’m totally ok with snowflake being all special and powerful and all. At least she has this whole cute, clueless, totally-uncertain-about-herself thing going on. Unlikesomepeople.”
“I think we got completely sidetracked by the Savannah-is-a-Polymage revelation.” Altair reached for one of Jareth’s pizza slices.
And Jareth batted his hand away. “Yeah, because it’s abigrevelation.”
“Yes, it is. But it’s something we can deal with later, when the other Knights return from the General’s operation.” Altair slid me a curious glance. “Your spells certainly are impressive, but there is more to this story than that.”
“You’re right.”
I talked about how I’d told the other Apprentices about the secret exit, knowing the fiends would overhear me.
“I lured them into the basement, thinking I could lock them out long enough to get everyone to safety.” I sighed. “But I was wrong. Because of me, the fiends have four of the Apprentices.”
“You’re thinking about this the wrong way, Savannah. You need to concentrate on the twenty-six other Apprentices who are safe because of you.” Eris offered me a kind smile.
But I was too upset with myself to accept it. “Do I? It wasmyplan. All mine. I didn’t tell any of the other Apprentices what I was doing. I made the decision, and I acted. So whatever went wrong, it’s all on me.”
“Ah, there it is,” Jareth sighed. He gave Eris a knowing smile.
I frowned. “Therewhatis?”
“The famous Polymage Paradox,” he replied. “You Polymages have all this power, so naturally you feel compelled to put the weight of the world on your shoulders. And so, of course, when anything goes wrong—which things inevitably do in life—you decide that it’s all your fault.” He rolled his eyes to let me know what he thought about that.
“But—”
“There’s nobut, snowflake. You saved a lot of people today, and you’re not even a Knight yet, for crying out loud. You are an Apprentice, and you’ve only been that for like, what, a week-and-a-half? You faced down three guys who had magic—and, on top of that, they were wearing crazy powerful suits that enhanced their magic. What you did was miraculous and impressive. But, most of all, it was very, very brave. So stop beating yourself up over the fact that it all didn’t go one hundred percent perfectly. Because here’s a secret tip to help you on your Knight exam: nothingevergoes one hundred percent perfectly.”
“That wasn’t a bad pep talk,” I said quietly. I definitely liked Jareth much more when he wasn’t stealing my tacos.
“Yes, it was a good pep talk, wasn’t it? So how about you shut up and accept it?” he said, brows lifted.
Dante sat down next to me. “He’s right, Sav.”
Nevada sat on my other side. “Definitely.”
I hugged them. “I love you guys,” I bleated, my eyes stinging.
They hugged me back, and to their credit, neither of them teased me for crying.
“Wait, so is thereactuallya Knight exam?” Bronte asked in a quiet voice.
Everyone laughed.
“I’m serious.”
She definitely looked serious. But none of the Knights answered her.
“We need to find the missing Apprentices.” I finally grabbed a pizza slice. “And the fiends who took them.”
