Page 41 of The Tribes of Magic (Paragons #3)

MISHAPS

M agical mishaps were best endured in private. When Conner and Kato arrived at my cottage the next morning, I couldn’t answer the door…because I was stuck inside a wall.

“Savannah?” They knocked again. “Are you in there?”

“The door’s unlocked!” I called out.

I heard the door open, then they stepped inside.

“Where are you?” Kato asked.

“I’m…stuck.”

My embarrassment flared up, fueling my magic. A gust of wind tore through the cottage, slamming the door shut. Footsteps approached.

“She’s in the wall,” Conner told Kato.

A fist thumped on the wall, and dust rained down on me.

“Hey!”

“Seven? How did you end up in there?”

I was so glad they couldn’t see my burning face. “Teleportation spell gone awry. I tried to teleport across the room. I miscalculated and teleported into the wall instead.”

“How can you even fit in there?” Conner asked.

“I don’t really.”

An uneven wood beam was digging into my back. I tried to shift my weight to relieve the pressure, but there wasn’t enough space to shift anything, so I ended up hitting my head on another wood beam. I swore under my breath.

“How can we help?” Kato asked.

“If you could get me out of here, that would be great. I can’t move my arms enough to weave a teleportation glyph.”

“I’m on it,” Conner said.

I heard a few taps on various parts of the wall.

“Ok. Try that, Red. I temporarily took a section of the wall out of phase with our dimension. You should be able to pass right through it.”

I tentatively stretched out my fingers toward the wall.

They passed through it. So I pushed and huffed and squeezed my way between beams and bars until I was out of the wall.

I met the boys’ eyes—briefly—then looked down, totally humiliated.

I’d gotten myself stuck inside a wall. Not my finest hour.

“Are you all right?” Kato asked me.

“I’m fine.” I tried to brush the wall dust off my black shirt, but it didn’t really work. I could still see it. Everyone would see it. I’d have to change before I headed out for the day.

“You wanted to see us?” Conner said.

I chanced a glance at him. He wasn’t laughing at me—or feeling sorry for me either. Neither was Kato. I rushed forward, hugging them both. Then I stepped back again.

Conner chuckled. “What was that for?”

“For being you.”

“All right then. I am awesome, after all.”

Kato rolled his eyes.

“Ok. Back to why I asked you guys to come over. It wasn’t to rescue me from a wall.” I blushed. “It’s about the spy at the Castle, whoever is watching me for the General.”

I told them how the Watchers had come to the Castle yesterday and opened up the exact locker I’d hidden the Paragons’ spellbook in.

“If Conner and I hadn’t gone to the Castle and grabbed the spellbook before that, the Watchers would have found it. And it would now be in the General’s possession.”

Kato paced back and forth across my cottage a few times, then stopped in front of me. “You believe whoever the spy is, they told the General about the Paragons’ spellbook.”

“Yes.”

His mouth dropped into a frown. “Why is everyone after this book?”

“Everyone?” Conner asked.

“First, it was the Chameleon. And now the General.” Kato’s eyes found the fat spellbook on the table. His gaze sharpened. “That book is dangerous. Having that book is dangerous for you, Seven.”

“I’m not getting rid of it. I’m learning a lot from the Paragons. I need the book. Somewhere in those pages, I’ll find the answer to saving the missing Apprentices. I just need more time.”

“Time is running out. The General knows about the book, and he wants it. Do you really think he’s the sort of person to just give up? He’ll send the Watchers here next. They will tear this place apart until they find it.”

Damn. Kato was right. The General would do exactly that.

I went over to the table and took the spellbook. I handed it to Conner. “Here, take it.”

“Me?”

“Kato is right. As long as I have the book, the General will find it. But if you took the book, he won’t find it.

You’ve been hiding from the General for months, and no matter how many Watchers he sends out to find you, they never do.

You have secret hiding places the General doesn’t know about.

The safest place to keep the Paragons’ spellbook is with you.

Will you help me, Conner? Will you hide the book? ”

“Of course, Red. Of course. You don’t even have to ask. But I thought you wanted to study the book?”

“I guess I can come visit you when I need to look at it?”

A playful smirk lit up Conner’s whole face. “You don’t need an excuse to come visit me. You’re welcome anytime.”

“Thank you.” I handed him the book.

Kato’s mood was more serious. “Hiding the book won’t solve the larger issue. The General has a spy at the Castle. We need to figure out who it is.”

Unfortunately, no one had any idea.

“We need to think about this from another angle,” Conner said. “We need to expose the traitor within the Government, the scumbag who made a deal with the Order of Kings to kidnap Apprentices. That will solve all our problems.”

“How?” I asked him.

“Because the General is the Government traitor. We expose him as an evil criminal mastermind who sells Apprentices to mysterious supernatural bad guys, and the Government will get rid of him. No more General means no more spy at the Castle.”

“What proof do you have the General is the traitor?” Kato asked him.

“You mean, besides the General’s whole personality?”

“Yes, besides that. As neatly as that would tie things up, I hate to break it to you, Conner, but being an annoying control freak is not proof.”

“Well, Kato, then I suppose we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that point.”

“We need actual proof of the General’s guilt before we make a move on him. And even if you’re right, we still need to find the spy at the Castle. Any Knight who would spy on their own comrades has no honor. The Knights cannot tolerate a spy in our midst. We must not tolerate it.”

“Where do you suggest we begin?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I still can’t believe one of the Knights has betrayed us. I know each and every one of them. They are good people. Honorable people.”

“You don’t always know people as well as you think you do,” Conner said.

Kato shook his head. “Whatever the case, we need to get to the truth. If the spy is reporting back to the General, and if the General truly is the Government traitor who sold out all those Apprentices, then we have a very big problem. I’ll head over to the Castle’s Records Room to investigate.

Apprentices have gone missing from more than just one Program year.

If Conner’s suspicions are correct and the General is involved in the kidnappings, that means the spy, whoever it is, has been around for a while.

Maybe something in the Castle’s records will tie the spy to the missing Apprentices. And then we’ll have our answer.”