Page 40 of The Tree of Spirits (Paragons #2)

IN SEARCH OF A SPELLBOOK

I gave the busy street a long, wary look. “So, you’re sure the Watchers aren’t still out there looking for me?”

“I’m sure,” replied Kato.

After breakfast, Conner had gone to check in with the other Rebels. Meanwhile, Kato and I were scouring the Magic Emporium for Mistress Meeta. Her tent didn’t stay in one place for very long. We’d been searching for most of the day. The sun had long since gone down, and we still hadn’t found her.

“I called the Black Obelisk. Now that the Watchers are back, they’ve been able to go through their security footage from yesterday,” Kato continued. “It shows that the Rebels knocked you out and removed you from the Black Obelisk against your will.”

“I bet the General was disappointed. He loves to see me as the source of everything that goes wrong in his life.”

The crowd parted before us—or, more specifically, before Kato. He looked pretty heroic, and maybe even a little intimidating, in his shiny white armor. He was a beacon of light on this gloomy, grey day.

“Soon the General will see you as someone who makes things go right,” Kato said, marching straight at the big puddle that blocked the way.

The water parted before him, clearing a dry path wide enough for the both of us.

“When I showed him the readings I took off the celestial globe, I explained that it was you who’d retrieved it from the Templars that day in the Park.

And that’s how we know that the kidnappers came here from somewhere else in the Many Realms. The General is getting a lot of political capital out of that little fact.

He is using it as ammunition against Fenris in their heated news debates. ”

When the rain started beating down faster, I tightened my rain hood around my head. “I didn’t realize the General had political aspirations.”

Kato flicked his WAND, turning it into an enormous white umbrella, which he handed to me. “There’s a lot more to the Iron Wolf than barking orders and hunting down Rebels.”

“So, you’re saying he’s a complex man?”

“Yes.”

I watched a pair of Watchers rush down a neighboring street. “Does that mean the General has given up his hunt for the Rebels?”

“No. He’s not that complex. He’s still hunting them.”

“Even though the Rebels helped the Watchers?”

“He still doesn’t trust them.”

“I guess the General is not a proponent of the ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ philosophy,” I commented.

“No, for him it’s more like ‘the enemy of my enemy better get out of my way or I’ll blast right through him’.”

My stomach growled.

“What was that?” Kato asked, turning around, like he was expecting an attack.

I blushed. “ That was my stomach.”

His armored hand flashed out. “Here.” He unfolded my fingers—metal meeting skin—and set something in my palm.

I looked and saw it was some kind of energy bar, neatly wrapped in a shiny silver package.

I peeled back the packaging and took a bite.

The bar melted in my mouth and tasted exactly like strawberry cheesecake.

“Mmmm, this is so good!” I finished it off in five greedy bites, then hit him with a desperate look. “Do you have any more of these?”

He pulled another energy bar out of a compartment in his armor. The snack’s shiny metallic packaging was identical—except this one was gold instead of silver.

“Thanks! I’m famished!” I snatched the bar out of his hand and tore open the wrapper.

“Yeah, I can see that.” I could hear the amusement in his voice. “You know, if you want to be a Knight, you’ll need to learn to eat with a little more dignity.”

I was too busy shoving the energy bar into my mouth to pay much attention to what he was saying.

“Oooh, I think I like this one even more!”

It tasted like brownies with vanilla ice cream.

“You Knights get all the good food,” I told him, wiping the chocolate off my face.

He watched me. “You missed a spot.”

“Where?”

“Pretty much everywhere.”

He said it in such a deadpan way that I had to laugh. Then he chivalrously offered me a handkerchief so I wouldn’t look like a ‘chocolate monster’.

“Wow, I feel much better. I have so much more energy,” I said as I deposited the used wrappers into the public trash bin. “Maybe a little too much energy actually.” My hands were rattling when I offered the handkerchief back to him.

He waved my hand away. “Keep it. I’m sure you’ll need it again. You have a tendency to throw yourself into messy situations.”

“Says the Knight who turns every minor crisis into a major Quest,” I shot back, smirking. But I tucked the handkerchief into my backpack anyway.

Because he was right. I’d probably need it before this was all over.

I stole a furtive look at him.

“What is it?” he asked me.

“I was just wondering if you’d consider me greedy if I asked for another?” I smiled.

“How can you still be hungry after all those pancakes? And two whole energy bars?”

“Those pancakes were hours ago!”

“Oh. Right.” He fidgeted a bit with his hands. “Sometimes, I forget that people need food.”

“ You need food too, Kato.”

“Later. I can’t eat with a helmet on.”

“Well, more for me. My appetite has returned with a vengeance,” I said as he tossed me another energy bar. I was tempted to gobble it down, but I tucked it into my backpack instead, for later. “I’ve had trouble eating the last few days. Guilt is a big appetite-wrecker.”

“This is about the four Apprentices the Templars kidnapped from the conference center, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” I heaved a big sigh. “I didn’t save them.”

He set his hand on my shoulder. “I talked to the mentors and frankly, Seven, you’re being quite ridiculous.”

I shrugged him off, frowning. “No, I’m not. I should have gone back for them.”

“Into the building? Which was full of magic gas that would have knocked you unconscious in a few seconds?”

“Maybe it wouldn’t have!”

Buried beneath his helmet, his sigh rumbled like a monster trapped in a trashcan. “You have done some very impressive things, Seven, but you are not invincible. If you’d gone back into that building, chances are you would have become kidnap victim number five.”

“I just feel like…well, like I should have at least tried . Instead, I chickened out.” My gaze dropped to my feet. “Because I’m a coward.”

“You are not a coward.” This time, Kato set both hands on my shoulders, and his grip was too firm to shake off.

He waited for me to look at him before continuing, “When everyone else panicked, you performed admirably under very difficult conditions. Just like you did when the Cursed Ones attacked the Garden. And when you faced a fire tiger and the Cursed Ones in Shadow Fall. And when you helped us fight the Techno Knight at the Oval. You were brave and clever and all the things a Knight should be. Like you always are. You aren’t a coward, Seven.

Maybe sometimes you get scared, but that’s totally ok. We all get scared.”

“Even you?”

“Of course.” He dipped his head lower, closer to me. “But just don’t tell Conner, ok?”

A burst of laughter exploded out of my mouth. “Thanks, Kato.” I reached up to my shoulders, setting my hands over his. “For the energy bars. For clearing my name with the General. And, most especially, for the pep talk.”

“It was my pleasure.” He stepped back, sweeping into an elegant bow.

“Well, isn’t he charming?”

I whipped around to find Mistress Meeta standing there. Her ornate tent, which I could have sworn hadn’t been there a moment ago, was set up right behind her.

“So, dearie.” Mistress Meeta smacked her glossy red lips. “I told you that you’d be back.” She clapped her hands, and the black-and-white spellbook appeared in them. “This is what you came for, no?”

“Yes.” I nodded, my gaze glued to the book. “It is.”

Her smile spread wider. “Well, then, I’m sure the three of us—” Her gaze flickered to Kato, then back to me. “—can come to a reasonable arrangement.”

Under the cover of her gauzy tent—which was way more waterproof than it looked—we bartered for the Paragons’ spellbook.

Mistress Meeta must have really wanted me to have it because in the end, she parted with the priceless, one-of-a-kind book for a small pouch of those iridescent marbles that the Many Realms used for money.

“A pleasure doing business with you,” she said, tucking the money pouch under her sparkling, jingling robes.

Her smile faded as a chorus of screams rippled across the market. A lower, deeper note hovered under the ceiling of shrieks, a familiar growl. My stomach twisted itself into knots.

“It’s back,” I muttered, steel singing in my ears.

Kato had drawn his sword. “You have encountered this beast before?”

“Yes,” I said, turning toward the Chameleon.

It was in its Charger form again, a large, wolfish creature with long fangs and hard scales. Mistress Meeta fled in terror and so did everyone else—the shoppers, the vendors, the hungry seagulls—everyone except for us.

“That,” I said, pointing at the beast, “is one of the most dangerous monsters in all the Many Realms.”