Page 85 of The Tree of Spirits
CHAPTER 8
THE CELESTIAL GLOBE
Conner brought me to another one of the Rebels’ hideouts. It was an abandoned house just a five-minute walk from the Killfield train station.
“Make yourself at home, Red,” Conner told me once we were safely inside and had shrugged off our invisibility disguises.
I looked around. The house wasn’t fancy, but it was far less raggedy than the other Rebel hideout I’d visited. For one, the floor was a smooth, even layer of wood, so I didn’t have to watch my every step.
Conner set the celestial globe on the kitchen counter. “Ok, let’s figure out where the Templars have been.”
I plopped down on the sofa and turned on the TV. “Hey, it looks like your friends fixed the Watchers,” I called out.
“Awesome, now the Generals’ soldiers can get back to hunting us down,” he quipped.
I turned, watching him over the back of the sofa. “I’m sure they’re looking for the Templars too.”
“Yeah, I’m not holding out much hope for their success. The Watchers don’t handle matters of magic very well.” He shook out his hands, setting off a few sparks. “Ok, so the good news is I’ve managed to pull up this celestial globe’s full location history.”
“And the bad news?”
“It’s a very long list of realms.” He exhaled deeply. “Likeverylong. It would take us months, if not years, to visit them all and search for the missing Apprentices.”
I joined him in the kitchen. “Yeah, I was afraid that might be the case.” I reached out and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “But we can still use this information to prove that the Rebels are not the Templars, right?”
“Yeah.” He stroked his chin thoughtfully. “There are a bunch of dates when the Templars were in other realms, and the Rebels were definitely here, saving people from bandits while the Watchers made a very public scene of trying to arrest us.”
“Bandits,” I repeated in a mutter.
“Red?”
I looked at him. “During my Discovery Quest, bandits attacked us at the mall. The Rebels swooped in to take care of them.”
“You mentioned that before. So I asked Vivi. She said that she, Benek, and Angel were the Rebels in the mall that day.”
“Benek?”
“You haven’t met him yet,” he told me. “In any case, Vivi said the three of them tied up the bandits and left them for the Watchers.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “If only they’d brought them back to one of your hideouts instead.”
“Why?”
“Because the Templars aren’t the only threat to the Apprentices. I think the Brotherhood sent those bandits to kill us,” I told him. “And I want to know what else they’re planning.”
“The Brotherhood isn’t planning anything nowadays,” said Conner. “After what happened in the Park, the Watchers arrested all the Brothers.”
I shook my head. “Only the Brothers they know about. I’m sure there are more out there, just biding their time. This isn’t the end of the Brotherhood. They sent Cursed Ones to take out Apprentices. They also kidnapped Scavengers to use them as slave labor. And they attacked the Tournament. Furthermore, the ‘Black Knight’ the boys in Bayshore mentioned—I think that was one of the Brotherhood’s Techno Knights. The Brothers used Finn and Sean. They cursed them so they would take out Bayshore’s Chosen. The sort of people who would do all of those terrible things wouldn’t give up just because the Watchers caught a few of their members. The Brotherhood isn’t done with us yet.”
“You might be right about that, but for the moment they’re out of the fight,” Conner replied. “So we need to focus on the Templars. We need to focus on saving the Apprentices they abducted from the conference center.”
“Right.” I drew in a deep breath. “And we can start by proving the Rebels didn’t kidnap the Apprentices. The Templars did.” I glanced down at the celestial globe, which was still glowing faintly. “Whoever these so-called Templars are, they’re not from Gaia. They’re from somewhere else in the Many Realms. That should make the General happy. It will give him ammunition against Prince Fenris, who’s always going on and on about our ‘in-fighting’.”
“At the very least, it will keep the General busy while we try to save the Apprentices before the Templars escape our realm with them.” Conner’s eyes drifted upward.
“So you’re going to send this proof to the General?”
His gaze snapped back to me. “Actually, I have a better idea.”
