Page 27 of The Tree of Spirits (Paragons #2)

POLYMAGE PARADOX

T hat evening, the Apprentices had dinner together with the mentors in the Castle. Boxes of pizza covered all of the tables but one. That one was full of bandages, braces, and other first aid supplies.

“The mystery assailants in black are still out there,” Ainsley said as she tended to an Apprentice’s wounds. “And they’ve taken four Apprentices with them.”

“We have to go back there for them,” I insisted while Eris cleaned the wound on my forehead. “We have to rescue the Apprentices.”

“We will. But first we have to find them.”

Her words startled me so much that I wasn’t even bothered that her forehead-bandaging job had left me looking like a mummy. “Aren’t the fiends trapped in the conference center?”

“No,” said Altair as I moved to one of the dinner tables. “Somehow they escaped with the four Apprentices. We don’t know how. All of the building’s exits were guarded.”

“Obviously not all of the exits.” Nala frowned. “Twenty-seven Apprentices escaped their captors and got out.”

“Yeah, how did you do that?” Ainsley asked us.

“She got us out.” Dutch pointed at me. But it wasn’t an accusatory gesture. He mostly just looked stunned. “One moment we were in the basement, and the next we were outside.”

Orion rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “You’re talking about teleportation.” His eyes widened as they looked at me. “You can teleport.”

“Surprise?” I said with a forced smile.

“This is indeed a surprise!” Orion replied. “Teleportation is a very complex Dreamweaver spell. Who taught you how to do it?”

“Uh, I read it in a book.”

Not that the spell was in the book anymore. Mistress Meeta had torn it out to give it to me.

“You can teleport,” Orion said again.

“I can sort of teleport,” I corrected him. “Mostly I just end up somewhere I don’t want to be.”

“You teleported well enough today,” he pointed out.

“Multiple times,” Dutch said.

Orion grabbed a slice of pizza from the box in front of him. “That doesn’t sound like ‘sort of’ teleporting. That sounds like actual, in-control teleporting.”

“I guess it was the adrenaline. That and it all being a matter of life or death. So I had no choice but to focus, you know? I had to get everyone out of there.” I slouched over. “And I failed.”

Eris sat down across from me. “You’re an untrained Apprentice who got twenty-six of her comrades to safety when facing impossible odds, Savannah. I wouldn’t call that a failure.” She passed a pizza box to me, but I didn’t feel very hungry at the moment.

Jareth generously took the pizza off my hands. “Impressive is what it is.” He chowed down on a gooey, cheesy slice.

The other Knights nodded in agreement.

“And she can teleport,” Orion muttered. Every time he said it, he sounded even more like he couldn’t believe it.

“That’s not all she did,” Dutch spoke up, drawing the immediate attention of all six Knights. He cleared his throat before he continued, “Back in the basement, she did this weird humming thing, and then all the crates started flying around and attacking the fiends.”

Altair’s brows lifted. “Humming, you say?”

Dutch nodded.

Altair exchanged glances with Eris. “Nymph magic.”

“She must have been manipulating the elements inside the crates, like the wood or metal,” Eris replied.

And then all the Knights grew very quiet.

“What is it?” I barely dared to ask the question.

“You can teleport,” Orion said for the millionth time, only this time he suddenly sounded like he totally believed it. “That’s a Dreamweaver spell.”

“And you can control a natural element,” Eris added. “That’s Nymph magic.”

“And that’s…bad?” I held my breath, waiting for their answer.

“It’s not bad,” Eris told me. “It’s just very unusual.”

“There are six castles that form the Castle.” Ainsley held up six fingers. “ Six Tribes. Six types of magic. Six kinds of Knights.”

“And then there is you, Savannah Winters,” Nala said in her smooth, calm, no-nonsense manner. “You don’t belong to any of those six Tribes.”

Great. That was the story of my life. Not fitting in anywhere.

Jareth cracked a smile. “Don’t worry, snowflake. You’re in good company. Your boyfriend’s a freak too.”

“Wait, what exactly do you think I am?”

“A Polymage,” Eris told me. “It’s very rare. In fact, you are only the third Knight ever to become one.”

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. Unlike some people.”

“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 a big revelation.”

“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 was my plan. 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. “There what is?”

“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 no but , 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: nothing ever goes 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 there actually a 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.”

“Don’t worry,” Altair said. “We will.”

“They will try to run.” Orion’s eyes drifted upward as he spoke. “Likely through the Spirit Tree.”

“We can’t let them escape into the Many Realms. If they do, we’ll never find them,” Ainsley said.

“I’ve spoken to the General.” Nala had spent all of dinner standing, her hand gripping her spear, like a sentry.

“As soon as the fiends blasted into the conference center, he had his soldiers lock down the Interchange. The Spirit Tree is under guard 24/7. No one is allowed near the tree until we’ve caught the fiends. ”

“The next closest Spirit Tree to us is on a whole other continent.” Eris folded her hands together on the tabletop. “The fiends will stay in the city. They will make a move on the Interchange.”

“And we will be there to nab them when they do.” A vicious smile curled Jareth’s lips. “Don’t worry, snowflake. We’ll get the other Apprentices back.”