Page 30

Chapter Thirty

A fter a hurried dinner in the tearoom, I made my way to Mount Shasta’s city park, wanting to arrive a little early.

I tucked my car into an empty parking space.

A canopy of trees spread overhead was blocking out the light from the stars.

Aside from a few lights in the park, I might as well be in the middle of a forest.

I had grown up playing at this park and knew that, beyond the large grassy field and play structure, a stream snaked through the thin forest. It was the mouth of the Sacramento River and boasted some of the purest water in the world.

A few minutes later, Professor East arrived, and I joined him at a picnic table lit by a park light. He checked his watch. “She should be here any moment.” He looked at something behind me and rose. “Ah, here she is.”

I turned to see a woman approaching along the path from the parking lot. I likely would have recognized her even without Professor East to introduce us. She was wearing a soft brown backpack, hiking boots, and had sprig of lavender tucked behind her ear. She had magical botanist written all over .

“Petra, good to see you,” Professor East said as the two shook hands. “This is Briar.”

“Hello.” The field studies advisor said kindly as she reached out a hand. “I’m Petra Mancini. You can call me Petra. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too. Thanks for taking me on as a research assistant. Professor East said you haven’t had one before,” I said as I shook her hand.

I studied Petra more closely, the dim light of the park lamp illuminating her face.

I had noticed an accent—Italian, it sounded like.

Her skin was tanned and lightly lined but vibrant, and she appeared fit in a lean way, as if she spent a lot of time hiking.

I’d guess she was in her fifties or sixties.

“Professor East is correct.” She was studying me, as if searching for something.

“Well, I just wanted to introduce the two of you and make sure you got connected. You have plenty of work to do, so I’ll leave you two to it,” Professor East said.

“I’ll be in touch.” Petra nodded to my instructor, and then Professor East headed toward his car.

“So is our research taking place here, at the park?”

“No, I wanted to meet here and have us drive together to my research area up on the mountain. I didn’t want to make you drive that windy road alone at night. Are you comfortable with that?”

I sucked in a breath but quickly tried to display confidence.

I knew exactly which road she was talking about.

It was the one where my mom’s car accident had occurred.

I had been on it many times since—on school field trips, mostly, and more recently, on a trip with Callan last year. But I’d never driven it myself.

“Yes, that works for me.”

“Okay then. Let’s get going. I don’t want to keep you too late. I’m sure you have many questions, but it will be easiest to show you rather than try to explain.”

I agreed, and we got in her car, a sleek black outdoorsy SUV that was clean and tidy inside. Petra made small talk about the academy and asked how my studies were going as we drove on the road that led to the trailhead on the mountain.

We passed the bend where my mom’s accident had occurred, and I tensed. Petra quieted and glanced my way, but then the moment passed, as it always did.

When we reached the parking lot, Petra handed me a headlamp before putting one on herself and switching on the light.

“I hope you’re okay with a little night hiking?”

“Of course.” I took the headlamp and adjusted it. I was glad I had dressed for research and was wearing comfortable clothes that would work for a hike.

“We’re headed up to base camp, so not too far.”

I nodded, familiar with the base camp area that housed a tiny alpine hut made of lava rock.

We began our climb, mostly going in silence.

I was grateful to be able to focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

The hike wasn’t steep at this low altitude on the mountain, but now that it was dark, I needed to look to ensure steady footing on the uneven parts of the trail.

Soon, though, I found myself distracted. The roots that stretched underneath the trail were like rivers of energy demanding my attention. The cells of the trees, shrubs, and grasses around the trail seemed to beckon me to examine them.

I let the sensations wash over me, and in some ways, I felt that they propelled me on the uphill hike faster than I would normally go. I was connecting with my power, and with field studies about to begin, the timing couldn’t be more perfect. I was ready to learn.

Less than an hour later, we emerged in the base camp clearing, where explorers had once rested with their horses. The little stone cabin that was staffed by federal parks workers in the climbing season was straight ahead.

The cabin was tiny—more of a hut than a house—and the collage of rocks that built its four walls, plus the imposing stone chimney, harkened to something out of an early era of exploration. Or tribal displacement, depending on who was telling the story .

Petra made a beeline for it. I wondered what she was doing, given that I knew it would be closed right now. But Petra waved me on to follow, and then she pulled out a key and unlocked the door.

Right . So my field studies advisor had access to the historical alpine hut—the only structure this high up on the mountain. Interesting.

When we stepped inside, Petra closed the door then got to work setting up a few camping lanterns that were stashed in a crate in the corner. The hut had been built in the 1920s as a tiny shelter, and there was no electricity or much of anything inside.

“That’s better,” Petra said once the place was glowing with dim light.

“Umm, is this where we’re going to do our research?” I asked, my curiosity finally spilling over.

Petra smiled and went to feel along the interior log wall. She pressed on it gently, and a panel fell open. My eyes widened.

“Yes, it is. This is why I only come up here at night. I need the cabin to be closed off to hikers.”

She began rummaging through the materials that were stored behind the secret panel.

“How long has this cabin been your… workspace?” I asked, still awed that the cabin of my childhood field trips had secret panels inside it.

“It has been the workspace of others before me. I’m here on a temporary assignment. There is something about the ecosystem of this area that enhances a botanist’s access to our magic.”

Part of me wanted to reach out and skim the air to try to put a tangible feeling on what she was describing. Is that why I’d been so in tune with the plants on the hike in?

But what did she mean that our magic was enhanced? I had been studying botanical magic at Evergreen Academy for a year and had never heard of anything like that. “Enhanced access? What causes it? ”

“We don’t know for certain. There are a few areas like this around the world, though they are rare. We call them green zones.”

“Green zones.” I let the term roll off my tongue, reverent at the idea. “How large is the area?”

“The epicenter is about a two-hundred-foot radius around us, but the effects dissipate as they spread out beyond that, with less potent runoff effects seeping into the surrounding communities. It’s the reason Evergreen Academy was built where it was.”

I looked at her sharply, though things were snapping into place. “I thought it was because of the water here?”

“That was an added bonus, but the green zone is what drew the founders to this area to begin with.”

“I see. Why haven’t I heard about them?”

“The zones are classified information. It’s a directive from the Magical Botanical Congress.”

I began to open my mouth, and she sensed my question.

“I can tell you about it because this field study assignment comes with a certain level of clearance.”

I swallowed. Right . The reason we were here. “The field studies invitation mentioned counterpoisons. Is that your area of research?”

“It wasn’t always, but yes. As botanists with defensive plant affinities, it’s as important to study how to guard against defensive plants as to wield them. Too many botanists fail to understand this.”

I nodded, thinking of the incident the previous year where most of the student body had been drugged with Scopolia and had started spilling our guts due to the truth serum.

Nevah, a founder’s descendant who had attended the previous year, had helped me to work on my detection skills after that at the insistence of Callan.

However, my training had been truncated when my powers had been cut off on campus.

“You won’t have to convince me of that,” I said honestly.

Petra nodded. “I didn’t think so.” She set a box on the picnic table that took up nearly half the room. “We’ll start with the basics and see how you do. Do you have much experience detecting poisons?”

“Very little,” I admitted.

“It’s much like detecting any other part of a plant, except when you connect at the tissue level, you need to search for something hidden, almost as if reaching for a trap door.” She held out a leafy plant I didn’t recognize. “Give it a try.”

I opened up my senses, filtering through the tissues of the plant down to the cell level and back up again.

At first, the experience felt a little like the investigations I had done on campus last year.

But it was amplified, and I wondered if it was the effects of the green zone allowing me to be so precise.

Then I felt something quietly knocking, as if asking to be let out. I zeroed in on the little pockets that were trapped. They were spread throughout the plant, but I felt them most acutely in the seeds.

“Ah, you’ve got it. I can feel them responding,” Petra said.

I opened my eyes to see her nodding encouragingly.

“That’s poison hemlock. More potent in the spring but still zesty enough in the fall for us to feel it.

Try this one.” She held out a different plant, and I noticed that there were a dozen samples in jars on the table.

I opened up my senses and repeated the process.

An hour later, I could zero in on each toxin and identify the plant without looking. Petra hadn’t been exaggerating about the potency of our magic here. It was subtle, but I felt more connected to the plants I was working with than ever before.

“Excellent. Professor East told me you were powerful, but that’s a subjective word. He was right to use it, though. You picked that up extremely quickly.”

I glowed under her praise. Finally, I was working with an established magical botanist in a setting where I could stretch my powers. I hadn’t known how exhilarating that would feel.

“Thank you, this is fun despite how difficult it is. Will we be doing this at every session? Is there something specific you’d like me to help research?”

Petra paused as she reorganized some of the plants. “I have a few goals in mind for us, but we will start with one that came on special request by Professor East.”

“Really? What kind of request?”

“He would like us to find out the affinity of whoever poisoned the verdant shield.”