Page 94 of The Tree of Spirits
“It’s not fair to burden her with this.”
“Uh, I kind of think she’s already living with that burden. She’d feel better knowing she’s not alone.”
And now my heart was racing, panicking. “Ok, now you guysreallyneed to tell me what you’re talking about. Because it can’t be worse than what I’m imagining.”
“What are you imagining?” Conner asked me.
“I don’t know, but it’s really, really bad!” I squeezed my hands together to stop them from shaking. “Now—please!—tell me.”
Conner slid Kato a glance. “Do you want to do it? Or shall I?”
Kato let out a heavy sigh. “Seven.” He braided his fingers together, then, deciding that wasn’t right at all, braided them the other way. “Like you, I had magic before the Blending. And so did Conner.”
I gaped at him. “So, you think…” I cleared my throat. “You think having magic before the Blending and being a Polymage are related.”
“I sure don’t think it’s a random coincidence,” said Conner. “There have only ever been three Polymages, and we all had magic before the Blending.”
“Ok, but there haven’t been very many Knights, so maybe?—”
“You misunderstand,” Kato told me. “We’re not just talking about Gaia or the Knights. We’re talking abouteverywhere. We are the only three Polymages in all the Many Realms.”
“But the Many Realms are vast!” I gasped. “How can you know that there isn’t another one of us anywhere out there?”
“We’ve done our research,” said Kato.
“Plus, there’s the matter of the Court’s response when they learned of our existence,” Conner added. “Why do you think they’re even bothering at all to come here for a Summit? It’s certainly not about Gaia. The Court considers us an insignificant realm. On a cosmic scale, we’re primitives, babies at the very beginning of our magical evolution. And yet we already have several Polymages, something that they’ve always considered a magical impossibility. The Court obviously wants to know howthis weird, impossible phenomenon happened.” He shrugged. “And they will probably try to reproduce it.”
“The General knows how important Polymages are to his goals. That’s why he was so displeased to lose one of them.” Kato glanced at Conner. “It’s also why he’s been trying so hard to hunt down the Rebels. This isn’t just about punishing them for throwing off the shackles of his authority. The General thinks he can convince Conner to swear his allegiance to the Gaian Government once more.”
Conner snorted. “Yeah, so that’snotgoing to happen.”
“If the General wants Conner back, then why doesn’t he just address the reason the Rebels left in the first place?” I asked.
“Because the General is even more stubborn than Kato,” Conner told me.
Kato readjusted his hands again. “You told her why you left?”
“Yeah, I kind of had to,” Conner replied. “And I hope you see now, after all that’s happened this past week, that I was right. Freak accidents didn’t kill Vivi’s sister and the others. Something took them, the samesomethingthat’s right now trying to escape Gaia with four Apprentices.”
“I know.” Kato breathed into his hands. “I guess I’ve known for a while. I was just…”
“Too stubborn to admit it?” A full-on grin took over Conner’s face.
“You just can’t leave it be, can you, Conner?” Kato sighed.
“Of course not. You know me.”
“Yeah.” Kato locked forearms with him. “I do.”
“It’s so much better when you two are getting along,” I said, smiling at them. “And if we work together, I’m sure we can fix everything. Stop the Templars. Save the Apprentices. Reunite the Knights.”
Conner looked at Kato. “I love how optimistic she still is. It reminds me of how we used to be.”
“Yeah.”
I jumped to my feet, taking their hands, squeezing them. “You can be that way again! You just have to want to be.”
We stood there for a while, grinning like idiots. Kato’s smile was the first to fade. He dropped his arms to his sides.
