Petari frowned but didn’t say anything more. Instead she helped Arrow show the others how to slide onto the lilies safely to get across.
It wasn’t long before they were running to my trunk, and joy lifted my leaves. I had worried I’d never talk to Arrow again, never feel his weight on my soil. I had worried the machiners would destroy him, just like they wanted to destroy the forest. I had worried, but I hadn’t needed to. He had come back to me.
“Guardian!” Arrow shouted as I came into sight. He flung his arms around my trunk. Happiness warmed my bark and soaked into my cells.
Curly greeted Arrow with a screech. Still slow on her healing paw, she swung down and hugged his arm.
“I missed you, Curly.” Arrow kissed the top of her head.
“I’m glad you’re back, Arrow,” I said.
“Hi, Guardian!” Petari jumped up and down, waving to me.
“Hello, Petari.” I liked this girl’s enthusiasm.
Arrow repeated my words to Petari, then turned back to me. “You were right about the machiners. I’m sorry I trusted them.”
“Don’t be,” I said. “I heard what you told Val on your way here. And you’re right. In this forest, we do try to help each other. It’s not your fault that they betrayed your trust. I am very proud of you.”
“This is the Guardian?” Val gazed up at my branches. “Looks like any normal tree. Doesn’t even look too healthy.”
“What do you mean?” Arrow asked.
Val pointed to my leaves. “Got some yellow and brown spots. Could be a disease or something.”
“How do you know that?” Worry drilled into the ground as Arrow saw my yellowed leaves.
“Our dad taught Val about plants and stuff,” Petari said proudly.
“Yeah. He was a gardener and worked in the Stilts sometimes, looking after the few trees they had. He used to teach me stuff about soil and trees. That was before he disappeared.” Val kicked his toe against the hard ground.
Arrow glanced up at me. “Guardian, are you okay?”
“I’ve had to give nutrients to help others. If I sacrifice a few leaves for that, it’s all right.”
“Does he really hear the tree talking?” Rosaman whispered to Petari.
“Uh-huh.” She smiled up at me. “I wish I could, but I did see her use the magic. It was amazing.”
“Don’t listen to her, Ros,” Val said. “I love trees, but they’re not magic. There’s no such thing as magic.”
“That’s not true!” Petari turned to Arrow. “Could the Guardian show them like she showed me?”
Arrow shook his head. “We need to preserve the Anima.”
Arrow was right, but perhaps shielding the forest from the herd hadn’t been my best idea. Arrow was reminding me of the lessons I had taught him, about how the forest had worked together with humans in the time of the Forest Dwellers. I hadn’t trusted the herd from the north, but Petari was proving me wrong. She wanted to help. When the Imposters had pushed out the Forest Dwellers, I had hidden away our home. I had turned my back on the humans. But had the Forest Dwellers always lived in harmony with us? Had there been a time when they had needed lessons too? Had I given up on humans too quickly?
“Arrow,” I said, “stand so you can’t see Val, so he’s behind you, close your eyes then tell him to point to something around him.”
Arrow frowned. “Okay.” He relayed my message, even though doubt squeezed from his toes.
“Why?” Val asked.
“Because the Guardian asked you to,” Arrow said. “Because I’m asking you to and I helped you before.”
Val sighed. “Fine.”
Arrow closed his eyes and turned his back to the boy.
“Tell him he’s pointing at me,” I told Arrow, relaying what the ants had seen.
“You’re pointing at the Guardian?” Arrow said, as though he weren’t sure. He should trust me more.
Val’s eyes widened, but his heart was still hard. “You could’ve guessed that. Do it again.”
“He turned around and is now pointing at the rock that was behind him,” I told Arrow.
Arrow repeated my words, and Val’s mouth dropped open. “How did you know that?”
“I told you,” Petari said, grinning.
“That’s… That’s…” Val peered at me, as though I suddenly looked different, like I was impossible.
“Umm wow?” Rosaman stepped back, gazing into my branches.
“That’s the Guardian Tree.” Arrow opened his eyes and smiled at them.
“Let me try,” Faive said, jumping up and down.
But her request was interrupted by Ruthie starting to cry. “She’s hungry,” Rosaman said, swinging the backpack off his shoulders and pulling out the baby.
“Bananas are over there.” Arrow pointed to the tree to the east.
Rosaman glanced around. “Will we be safe?”
Arrow smiled and patted my trunk. “Don’t worry. The Guardian won’t let anything touch you here.”
Rosaman smiled at me and nodded. “I can believe that. Come on, Faive. Help me.”
As they went to the tree, Arrow hung his head. “I have to get back to the machiners’ camp. I don’t know how I’m going to stop them from destroying the forest, but I can’t leave it to the others. I have to try.”
“Arrow, Storma was right,” Val said. “They’ve taken out groups bigger than this. Not ones with so many guns, but…”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” Petari crossed her arms. “You said the Guardian could keep the forest safe if you had more of the magic, right?”
Arrow sighed. “Yes, but I’ve tried to grow the Anima, and nothing has worked.”
“We haven’t gone to the Stilts yet,” Petari said.
“The Stilts doesn’t have magic.” Val scrunched up his face as though he was wondering how she could think otherwise.
“How do you know?”
Arrow shook his head. “He’s right. Crankas showed me how they made the light. It was another lie.”
“But if this Anima is in the earth in the forest, doesn’t it make sense that it’ll be in the earth everywhere?” Petari looked from one to the other, making sure she had their attention. She did, and mine as well. “Arrow, you told me it’s not that trees can’t talk, but that we’re not listening. Well, now we know that trees can talk to the people who listen. Right, Val?”
Val nodded, glancing at me. “I don’t know how, but yeah.…”
“So just because we’ve never seen real magic outside of this forest, doesn’t mean it’s not there,” Petari continued. “Dad always said that bush near our house lasted much longer than it should’ve, didn’t he?”
Val nodded.
“Maybe that bush had some magic and we didn’t know,” Petari said. “There used to be trees and bushes and flowers growing all over the Barbs and the Stilts. You told me that, Val.”
“That was before you were born. Before I was born even,” he said.
“So? If they were growing there, maybe there was magic. Maybe there’s still some magic, but no one knows about it. If we can find some and get it to the Guardian, she can protect the forest from the Stilters for good.” Petari looked from Arrow to her brother to me and back again. “It’s something, isn’t it? We could at least look.”
I liked her thinking. Arrow did too.
“But how long will it take to go there?” he asked. “We need to mend the Anima fast.”
“It will take you too long to walk there,” I said. “But I can show you. Birds have been saying they want to help the forest. They can fly over and look for healthy trees.”
“Do you have enough Anima?” Arrow put his palm against my trunk.
“I will have to disconnect from the root network for a while.” I didn’t like to do that, but we were in desperate need. “As your friend said, it is something. If we can find magic there, it will be worth it.”
Arrow glanced at Petari, warming at my calling her his friend.
> The girl responded with, “What’s she saying?”
“She can help us,” he said, “but I’m worried about time. Guardian, before you disconnect, can you see what Crankas is doing at the Burnt Circle?”
“I will look.”
Val frowned. “She can—”
“She’s connected to everything in the forest,” Arrow explained.
“Yeah, Val.” Petari slapped his arm lightly.
“The root network has been breaking since the magic has been dying, though,” Arrow continued. “Can you see them?”
The frogs showed me the scene, angry machiners, a chaotic mess. “It looks like your ants have done their job for now. The humans are still cleaning up.”
“Good.” Arrow told Petari and Val the news. “The Guardian’s going to show me the Stilts.”
“She can—” Val began, and Petari slapped his arm again.
“Will you stop asking that? Anytime you wonder if the Guardian can do something, just say to yourself, ‘She’s magic. She can do anything.’ Got it?”
“I was just asking.” Val glared at his sister.
“It could be useful to have them as a guide,” I told Arrow. “Show your friends how to hold on to my root.”
I released my connection to the root network, suddenly feeling cold without the forest’s constant touch. It was the first time I had not been in full contact with the fungi since I’d sprouted. I didn’t like it.
But if I couldn’t mend the Anima, there would be no forest to connect to.
I wriggled away some soil, while Arrow explained the daydreaming to Petari and Val and showed them how to get ready. When they were all settled, each with a hand around my root and their eyes closed tight, I reached far, far, far out to the birds.
“Wow,” Petari said, as the daydream began.
“What the…? How…? What…?” Val stuttered.
“Watch,” Arrow said.
The bird had left the forest and flown high above. Arrow let out a breath as he saw the green of the canopy, and the patches of yellow where the Anima was depleted. The bird’s view swooped north, past the curtain and into the arid space beyond.
Nothing was green and alive. The few trees that still stood were brown and dead. The soil was light and dusty. Farther away, structures sprouted from the ground, straight and tall, gray and black. Vehicles like the ones I had seen the Imposters maneuver through the forest so many rings ago crouched in corners. A few humans trudged along a road, heavy on their feet. Dogs, small cats, and rodents scoured for food. But there were no trees, no bushes, no flowers. The only color came from the blue sky above, completely clear with no sign of a nourishing, water-filled cloud.
“That’s the Barbs,” Petari cried.
“There’s our old building,” Val said.
“Where?” Arrow asked, but the daydream had moved on with the bird.
We followed a road with houses on both sides, squares of barren dirt laid out before them where once grass had grown. Houses with chipped walls, broken windows. Parks of concrete littered with trash. Rows and rows and rows of empty roads, lined with brown, cracked twigs of bushes. And not one tree in sight.
I felt a tug on my roots, something calling for my attention. But I had too little Anima to reconnect to the root network and stay with the bird.
The bird flew on, past gray tongues of concrete that crisscrossed over more roads and stout buildings, onto a grove of sparkling towers that rose high enough to block out the sky.
Arrow’s right hand shook against my root.
“There it is,” Val said. “That’s the Stilts.”
The bird swooped around the towers, eyeing itself in their sides, which reflected like water.
The Stilts was vastly different from the Barbs, full of color and life. Specks of people roamed the streets, and Arrow gasped at the sight of so many humans, more than he’d ever seen in one place. They strolled and hurried and laughed and talked. Their hum could be heard high in the sky.
They shaded from the strong sun under green trees that stood tall along the roads. Perfectly sculptured bushes sat on street corners, and parades of flowers bloomed in tidy beds and boxes. Yet there was something wrong about them, something too even and perfect.
The bird got closer, and I asked her to land on a branch. I could immediately see the problem.
“These look like trees but they’re not,” I said.
“How can they have trees that aren’t trees?” Arrow asked.
“They used to have more real ones, but now it looks like they’re almost all fake.” Sadness dripped from Val’s voice.
“But why have these when they can have actual trees?” Arrow asked.
“Real trees won’t grow,” Val said. “There’s barely enough water for people, so they won’t waste it on trees. Plus the soil’s so bad, trees would get diseases and die. They used these chemical fertilizers, but it didn’t help for long.” Val swallowed, unease seeping from his hand into my root.
“So where should we look for the magic?” Petari asked.
“We’ll have to find some real trees,” Val said. “I think I know where.”
“Any trees here will be in desperate need of that life magic,” I said. “I can’t ask for it for ourselves.”
Arrow repeated my words to Petari and Val, then said, “Maybe if we can combine their magic with our magic, it’ll grow faster and help both the forest and the trees in the Stilts.”
“Yeah, like mold on cheese,” Petari said. “The more mold that’s on the cheese, the faster it’ll spew out spores and grow more mold.”
Now it was Val’s turn to reach out and slap Petari on her arm.
“What?” she said, protesting.
“Mold? Seriously?”
His reaction was amusing, but the girl’s analogy wasn’t bad. “It’s worth a try,” I said. “But how can we connect the two?”
“The river!” Val started to stand in his excitement, but when the dream images began to slip from his mind, he sat and clasped my root again.
“What river?” Petari said. “There hasn’t been a river in the Stilts since long before you were born.”
“It’s dried up now, but it might be just dried up on the surface. There could be a river underground, and it could be joined with the river here. Could the Guardian connect to magic in the Stilts through the river?”
“The river is part of the Anima,” I told Arrow. “We can try.”
Arrow repeated my words, hope building beneath him.
“Okay,” said Val, “can I tell you where to go? We can see how close the river gets to the trees in the Stilts. Maybe the Guardian can connect to them.”
“Go ahead. I’ll ask the bird,” I said, and Arrow repeated me.
Val gave a series of directions, and I passed them on to our hosting bird. She followed, swooping between buildings and around corners. We flew down a road that headed away from the shiny towers. Shorter buildings with dull, dust-colored walls sat along the sides.
The road weaved farther and farther out from the Stilts until we were moving back toward the Barbs. Then the road ended at a group of connected buildings and towers. Smoke rose from pipes on the roofs. And on the walls was a symbol I remembered well—the emblem like the stinkbird’s fan.
“Fenix,” Arrow whispered.
“Yeah,” Val said. “This is the plant that gives all the power to the Stilts. It also recirculates the water. It was built next to the river, way back before the river dried up, but it still gets water somehow.” He paused, then his eyebrows rose. “Maybe the plant pulls water from underground.”
The bird flew around the buildings. Humans hurried along paths below, opened doors, slammed others. Carriers, like the ones at the Burnt Circle, transported items from one area to another. And the smoke billowed and billowed, making clouds above. But not the nourishing clouds that fed the earth. These left a bitter taste on the wind, like the taste in the soil that had been dying.
At the back of the concrete v
illage was a building that blew more smoke than any other. Pipes protruded from behind it, pointing to the earth. And at the ends of the pipes were piles of some gray substance. A human operating a large vehicle with a clawed bucket on its front scooped up the material, carried it away from the building, and dumped it into a large hole, then pushed mud on top.
The bird swooped around the hole but immediately pulled back. There was something she didn’t like, something that hurt. Next to the hole was a long dent carved into the earth, like a deep scar that ran from far in the north and headed south toward us, toward the forest.
“What’s that?” Arrow asked.
“That’s where the river was. We can follow it to—” But Val’s words stopped. His hand started to shake. “Oh no! That’s it.”
“What is?” Petari asked.
Val didn’t answer immediately. Anger was swelling on his fingertips.
“Fenix is dumping their chemicals into that hole,” the boy said. “I think they’re killing the earth.”
28
THE ROOTS OF A TANGARANA TREE IN THE NORTH SHRUNK AND CURLED UP TIGHT, UNTIL THEY COULD NO LONGER SUPPORT THE TRUNK. AFTER A BATTLE TRYING TO STAY UPRIGHT, THE TREE FELL WITH A CRASH. THE ANTS THAT HAD LIVED PEACEFULLY WITHIN THE HOLLOW TRUNK FLED TO FIND ANOTHER HOME.
Fenix powers things, Val said.
Fenix makes things, Val said.
Fenix controls things, Val said.
After he let go of my root and I gave the bird my thanks, Val sat with his head in his hands. Anxiety grew under Petari as she watched her brother, not fully understanding his worry. Arrow peered at them from under furrowed brows.
“Dad used to talk about Fenix a lot, about how terrible they were,” Val said, eyes on the ground. “I thought he hated them because they made the power and only gave it to the Stilts. I always liked them because at least they made power and water, and I hoped we’d get in there one day and have it for ourselves.”
He shared a glance with Petari, who thinned her lips.
“But this is what he was talking about,” Val continued. “I get it now.”
“I don’t understand. What are they putting in the ground?” Arrow asked.
“Dad said there are bad chemicals that pollute the sky and the water and the earth. They kill soil,” Val said. “He told me soil was one of our most valuable resources because it takes thirty years to make the kind of soil that helps trees and plants grow the best way.”
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