Page 32 of The Tree of Spirits (Paragons #2)

MAGICAL INFUSIONS

V ivi peeked her head into the room. “If you’re done flirting with your girlfriend, Conner, we have a situation update.”

His gaze cut past me, to her. “What is it?”

“The Watchers are no longer looking for us.”

“They gave up.” Frowning, Conner stood. “That doesn’t sound like them.”

“They didn’t give up,” Vivi told him. “They’re just…gone. They simply disappeared.”

“Ok, so how did we do that?”

“ We didn’t do anything,” replied Vivi. “We don’t even know how this happened. The Black Obelisk is in a state of panic. Well, at least what few Watchers still left are panicking.”

“We have to fix this.”

Vivi raised one eyebrow. “Do we? The Watchers have made our lives a nightmare. They’re always hunting us, no matter how much we help them. They think we’re evil, Conner. And now they’re gone. Well, good riddance. As I see it, whoever did this to them did us a favor.”

“It’s true the Watchers are a nuisance to us, but they keep the peace,” Conner said as I got to my feet. “Imagine what will happen now that they’re gone.”

I sidled up to him. “Chaos on the streets.”

His gaze flickered briefly to me. “Yes.”

“This must be the Templars’ doing, and they certainly didn’t do it for your benefit,” I said.

“Think about it. With the Watchers gone and the Knights busy fighting the Cursed Ones in the Park, there’s hardly anyone left to guard the Spirit Tree.

This is the perfect cover for the Templars to escape with the Apprentices. ”

“Agreed,” said Conner, then he called Angel and Cedar back into the room.

Angel was a pretty talented Alchemist. In no time, she’d gained access to the Black Obelisk’s security camera footage.

“There,” she said, pausing the video. “This is from about an hour ago.”

I stared at an empty corridor of the Black Obelisk. “What are we looking at?”

“Just wait.” Angel rewound a few frames, and a Watcher suddenly appeared.

“He turned invisible,” Conner noted.

“There’s more.” Angel switched to a different camera. “Here’s that same Watcher, just a few minutes earlier.”

“How do you know it’s the same Watcher?” I asked. “They all look the same under all that armor.”

“After a while, you learn to tell them apart,” Conner told me. “It’s all in the way they stand, the way they walk, even in the way they move their heads.”

I squinted at the screen, but I just couldn’t see it. There were now two Watchers standing side-by-side, but they both looked exactly the same to me. Even so, the Rebels could not only tell them apart, they knew all their names too.

“Ok, see Fergus there is meeting with Adams. And now see what happens as Adams walks toward the edge of the screen. There!” Angel pointed at the screen.

“Adams disappeared,” Vivi commented.

“He turned invisible. And a few minutes later, Fergus did too.” Angel cycled through the cameras. “The Black Obelisk’s security videos from the last few hours are full of scenes like this. Watchers turning invisible.”

“Ok, so when did they learn how to do that?” Cedar asked. “They’re human. They shouldn’t be able to use magic.”

“They’re not using magic,” I said, looking away from the video. “Magic is using them.” My gaze slid to the four Rebels. “I think the Templars infected the Watchers with the invisibility flu.”

Vivi glanced at Conner. “What’s an invisibility flu?”

He shrugged. “Never heard of it.”

“I encountered it last week during a Discovery Quest,” I said.

“A Dreamweaver asked me to help her find her sister and a bunch of kids who’d suddenly disappeared.

It turned out they’d been infected with a highly contagious spell that made them—and anyone they’d come into contact with—turn invisible.

I managed to track the Dreamweaver’s sister to where she and the other kids were trapped, in another dimension.

And then I went there and pulled them back into our dimension. ”

“And you think the Templars infected the Watchers with this same invisibility flu?” Conner asked me.

“Not only that, I think the Templars were the ones to infect those kids in the first place. It was probably a test run for this.” I pointed at the screen, where a Watcher had just blinked out of sight. “If it’s the same spell, we can use the same solution to get the Watchers back.”

“The solution sounds like a life force spell to locate them and a dimensional jump spell to pull them back to our dimension.” Conner looked at Angel. “Do you think you can whip up an artifact that can do that?”

Angel already had her suitcase of supplies open. “Sure thing. But I’ll need you to weave the spells into the artifacts, Conner, since none of the rest of us have Dreamweaver or Sorcery magic.” Angel started crafting. “How many rings do you want me to make?”

“Three. One for each of you. Red and I have other problems to tackle.”

“Is that code for: you two want some alone time?” Vivi wiggled her eyebrows at him.

“Don’t answer that. I just ate.” Cedar made a gagging gesture.

“There are hundreds of Watchers missing by now,” Angel said from the little chemistry lab she’d set up on the table.

“I have the materials to make three artifacts, but it’s going to take a lot of Sorcerer and Dreamweaver magic to infuse those spells into the artifacts so they last long enough to find and rescue the Watchers.

We can’t have the rings’ power fizzling out immediately.

You sure you can handle expending so much magic, Conner? ”

“Don’t worry. I’ll have help.” Conner snatched my hand, bringing me forward.

“Me?” I choked out.

“Of course. You’ve already performed the spells. So you obviously have the right kind of magic for this.” He led me over to the table and pulled out a chair for me. “I’ll handle the life force locating spell. You take on the dimensional jump spell, ok?”

“Sure,” I said, trying to sound confident—or at least not like I wasn’t totally freaking out.

Conner offered me an encouraging smile, then sat down and started drawing runes on one of the rings. When he was done, he passed me the ring. Then I started tracing my spell over it.

As soon as I did, I felt a strange pulling sensation, like someone was drawing blood out of me. I looked down at my arm, startled when I saw a glowing stream under my skin, flowing into the ring.

“That’s creepy.”

Conner glanced at my arms. “Best not watch it, Red, or it will freak you out.”

I looked away from my arms, concentrating my attention on the ring. My constellation glowed once, bright and beautiful, before being pulled into the metal.

Conner took the second ring. “Where did you learn these spells?”

I knew he was trying to distract me. Truth be told, I didn’t mind the distraction. In fact, I craved it. The pulling sensation was growing stronger. I could feel my energy waning. I’d only been at this for a few seconds, but already I felt like I’d been running for hours.

“A ghost named Nixi taught the spells to me.”

“A ghost.” Conner chuckled. “Only you, Red.”

“Only me what ?”

“Only you could convince a ghost to teach you magic.”

“Well, she had a price,” I said.

“Let me guess. She wanted to possess someone.”

“Yes, the sister of one of the missing kids. Violetta was more than willing to agree to the terms if it meant saving her little sister.”

“You’re lucky the ghost agreed to give the body back when she was done,” Conner commented. “Most ghosts have to be forced out.”

“Nixi is a nice ghost,” I told him. “Though she did look, well, tempted to keep the body.”

“Ghosts don’t require sleep and they never rest,” Conner said.

“So they have a lot of free time on their hands. They spend most of that time watching and learning, gathering knowledge on all kinds of magic. They just can’t use that magic, not unless they’re possessing someone.

So you can see why she wanted to possess someone. ”

I could. It also explained how Nixi knew the life force tracking spell, Sorcery magic. She must have once possessed a Sorcerer and gained some firsthand experience.

“Ok.” Conner set down the last ring on the table. “All done.”

“Me too.” When I rose from my chair, a rush of dizziness nearly knocked me off my feet.

Conner caught me before I fell. He swept me up and carried me over to the sofa. “Sorry about that. Infusing the spells into the rings takes a lot of magic. I should have warned you.”

“Actually, it’s my fault. That draining feeling was a pretty obvious warning. I just ignored it.” I sighed. “You used a lot of magic too. And yet I’m the only one tripping over my feet.”

“You’ve already done more than any other Apprentice I’ve ever known.” I felt him brush his hand over my forehead. “So go easy on yourself, ok? You’re new at this. You still need to build up your endurance.”

I tried to look at him, but my eyes just wouldn’t focus. Even though I was lying down, the room hadn’t stopped spinning.

“Someone get a bucket. She looks like she’s going to hurl,” Cedar’s voice cut through the abyss.

“Not helping,” I mumbled, then quickly covered my mouth with both hands.

“Here, drink this.”

I blinked, forcing my eyes to focus. Conner was holding out a tiny bottle made of bright blue glass.

“What is it? Magic in a bottle?” I attempted a smile, but it didn’t really work.

“No, there’s no such thing as free magic,” he replied, his smile a far greater success story than mine. “It always comes with a price. It’s just a question of who has to pay it.”

He put his arm around my back, helping me sit up a little. “This is just something to make everything stop spinning,” he said, lifting the bottle to my lips.

I gripped the bottle eagerly, and our fingers touched. “I’m all for that.”

I drank it down in one go. It tasted like strawberries. And felt cool and comforting going down my throat. That soothing coolness spread across my whole body, melting my muscles. I hugged the pillow, closed my eyes, and fell fast asleep.