Toby and the Secrets of the Tree

by Timothee de Fombelle

  “Over there! His glove!”

  A glove had been left behind on the shell, just below the balcony.

  “He must have gone down that way.”

  The soldiers threw themselves onto the slope of the Egg and slid down the shell. Arbayan stayed for a moment on the balcony, before going back inside the Egg and closing the door.

  A few seconds went by and then Nils appeared. Having hidden himself just above, he now jumped back down onto the balcony.

  The moment that Leo had given him a hug, he had remembered Toby’s words: The day he gives you a hug, it’ll mean he’s found out about everything.

  Immediately, Nils had decided to escape.

  “I thought it was rather surprising that you’d leave your glove behind.”

  Arbayan had pushed open the door and was standing just behind Nils, holding his weapon in his hand.

  Nils stepped back. Arbayan was pointing his hornet’s stinger sword at him.

  “I knew you were a traitor,” said Arbayan. “I knew it from the start.”

  “You’re the traitor,” said Nils. “You’re the one who’s betraying everything you stand for, Arbayan.”

  The two men stared at each other.

  “When I was a small boy,” Nils recalled, “I used to see you going through Amen Woods, to collect your colors from the butterflies’ wings —”

  “Be quiet, Nils Amen.”

  “You were the man I wanted to become. You believed in what you were doing. Now you’ve become a sidekick. A madman’s sidekick.”

  Arbayan threw himself at the young woodcutter.

  Nils stepped to the side, and Arbayan’s weapon just missed his neck as Nils got ready to throw himself into the void. Arbayan saw him letting go of the balcony, bouncing and rolling down the wall, then getting crushed at the foot of the Egg. He thought it was all over. But after a couple of seconds, Nils got to his feet with some difficulty and headed off down a hallway of dry wood.

  Arbayan gave orders from the top of the Egg. The troop spotted Nils, who was making headway toward the White Forest.

  Nils had enough of a lead to escape the front line of his pursuers, but a few soldiers also rose up on either side, blocking his way. The stem Nils was advancing down was narrow, and he forced his way through the middle of the soldiers, sending them tumbling between the branches of the Nest.

  Nils crossed the White Forest. His leg was hurting, and he could feel himself slowing down as his pursuers gained ground. Nils was almost out of the Nest. Suddenly, overcome by exhaustion, he felt as if his limbs were no longer responding. He collapsed to the ground. He could hear the voices of Arbayan’s men drawing near. Nils knew he was done for.

  The soldiers stopped just behind him.

  Nils was resting his head against a lichen stem. He was thinking about Lila, her voice, her gestures, and her gentleness, which would be lost to him forever. He should have told her how he felt once, just once.

  “We’ve got you, you filthy piece of scum,” said one of the men, gasping from having run so hard.

  He went over to Nils, but just as he was about to put his hand on Nils’s shoulder, he heard, “This man is ours!”

  Nils looked up. It was the booming voice of his father, and there were fifteen woodcutters by his side.

  “This is our forest you’re in,” said Norz Amen.

  There was a moment of general consternation.

  Arbayan’s soldiers looked at one another and quickly realized that there was nothing they could do. Those were the rules. They weren’t allowed to touch the woodcutters.

  Nils saw them waver a few seconds longer. Then they spat on the ground and headed off.

  Nils turned toward his father. A huge smile lit up the young man’s face.

  All the woodcutters looked away, some of them discreetly dabbing their eyes.

  Norz put his hand on the ax that hung from his waist. He looked at big Solken, who was standing right next to him, unflinching, and said, “The truth is, Nils, you’re no longer one of us. You’re our prisoner, awaiting sentence.”

  They grabbed Nils Amen like a common thief and dragged him off.

  Norz tried to hold his head high, but his heart had been split down the middle, like a log.

  The only person who could have vouched for Nils Amen’s innocence, the only person who knew about his real plan and intentions, was down at the bottom of Joe Mitch’s Crater digging wood in a cloud of dust.

  Toby was wearing the Grass people’s layer of mud on his body again and had set off to wander around the Crater. The blue lines on his feet could be spotted from a ways off. They’d caught him at nightfall.

  This was exactly what Toby had intended. He’d handed himself over to the enemy.

  Moon Boy, Jalam, and all the others were delighted to see their Little Tree again. Mika was trying to communicate to Liev the fact that Toby was once more among them, but Liev had already understood. He ran his fingers through Toby’s hair and ruffled it, the way he used to in the Prairie.

  A smile returned to the Grass people’s faces.

  “I saw my father,” said Toby. “They stood me in front of him and asked me if I recognized him.”

  “Your father?”

  All the Grass people stared at each other. The old man with the pancake on his head . . . So that was Toby’s father.

  “He’s a good man,” said Jalam. “One can tell that you’re his son.”

  Toby nodded. Sim wasn’t his biological father. Toby knew about this from Pol Colleen’s revelations. But he was happy that Jalam should mention a family resemblance.

  “We’re all going to get out of here,” said Toby. “I’ve come to help you leave, you and my parents, and everybody else who has to dig in this Crater.”

  The Grass people whispered among themselves, then Mika asked, “Do you know the way out, Little Tree?”

  “Not yet,” Toby apologized. “But there’s always a way out.”

  “There’s no way out of here,” said Moon Boy, who could feel the tears welling up.

  Jalam explained quietly to Toby how a character named Tiger came every day to interrogate Moon Boy. He told him about the story of the pendant.

  “I don’t have much more time,” said Moon Boy.

  “What does he want?” asked Toby.

  “He wants to find you.”

  Toby remained silent for a long while. “I’ll make sure I’m careful. Nobody must recognize me. There’s always a way out,” he repeated for his own benefit.

  Before going to sleep that evening, Moon Boy turned to Toby and whispered, “I’ve got something to tell you, Little Tree.”

  “What is it?” asked Toby, yawning.

  “My sister is here.”

  Toby tried to hide his astonishment.

  “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know. I think they’ve put her to work in the kitchen. Mika saw her up there.”

  “Your sister mustn’t know that I’m here,” Toby managed to say.

  “Why?”

  “I can’t tell you. It’s very important. Your sister mustn’t see me.”

  Moon Boy didn’t realize how serious this request really was. He thought it was one of the rules of that incomprehensible game that grown-ups call love.

  Toby stayed awake all night long. What was being played was another game altogether, the game of life and death. Ilaya was now his greatest threat in the whole camp.

  During the days that followed, Toby experienced what working life in the Crater was like.

  He learned to blend into the group of Grass people. Not one of the guards recognized the person whom everyone had been looking for three years earlier.

  Toby suffered with every swing of his pickax. The tool forced its way into the wood with a dreadful squeaking noise, and when a drop of sap rose up to meet Toby’s feet, he couldn’t help thinking about the Tree’s pain.

  One morning, he was lined up with a dozen Grass people, at the foot of a cliff of ravaged wood, when Tiger rose u
p in their midst. Jalam signaled to Toby. “That’s him.”

  Tiger had a whip that had just grazed the convicts’ shoulders.

  “Look down, Little Tree,” said Jalam. “Or he’ll recognize you.”

  But Toby deliberately turned instead to catch the soldier’s eye. He needed to be sure he wouldn’t be unmasked. Tiger didn’t react at all; he just kept on cracking his whip.

  On the other side of the ravine, Liev was perpetually climbing and descending the side of the Crater. Saddled with several sacks filled with shavings, he guided himself by pulling on a rope that was destroying his hands. When the other workers were allowed a brief pause, Liev didn’t stop. Instead, a guard made sure that he was even more laden down.

  The Grass people were alarmed to see him wear himself out in this way. They watched him climbing at his regular pace.

  “I saw his hands and feet,” Toby told Mika. “They bleed every evening. He won’t be able to hold out for much longer.”

  “Liev is strong, Little Tree.”

  “He’s got to stop.”

  “If he stops,” said Mika, “they’ll get rid of him.”

  Toby was always thinking about his parents, who were living right there, on the other side. How could his mother survive in this hell?

  He had to act quickly, Toby knew. He observed the way things worked in the Crater, the customs, the changing of the guards. He was looking for a weak link in the organization that would allow him to communicate with his parents and all the others.

  Once again, events sped up Toby’s plans.

  Every evening, the Grass people received a bowl of crimson soup with bits of boiled sponge floating in it. Basically, a disgusting large mushroom was tossed into a big cooking pot, and it stained the water red. This meal was doled out at the entrance to a den, which doubled as a kitchen. The Grass people would stand in line, one behind the other, and hold out their bowl to an old guard who stood behind the cooking pot.

  The canteen server looked exactly like a sponge, and he must have thought he was seeing his own reddish reflection when he peered at the surface of the soup.

  On this particular day, as they arrived for their meal, Moon Boy nudged Toby’s shoulder.

  “Look!” he whispered.

  Next to the old canteen man, there was Ilaya.

  She was kneeling at the foot of the cooking pot, blowing onto the fire. Toby shuddered. Without wasting a second, he left Moon Boy and let the person behind him go ahead as, little by little, Toby made his way back down the line. Slowly, he was getting closer to the end of the long line of Grass people, all waiting their turn.

  Toby preferred to go without food than be seen by Ilaya.

  “Why is this one acting up?”

  Toby had accidentally bumped into two guards who were bringing up the rear.

  He realized he couldn’t retreat any farther. Obediently, and looking ahead now, he advanced toward the cooking pot. Some way in front of him, Moon Boy had just been served. He had smiled at Ilaya but hadn’t recognized anything in his sister’s gaze. Her eyes were wild and violent, and the features of her good-looking face didn’t move.

  Toby was only a few paces away. One by one, the three Grass people ahead of him were served. He moved forward.

  Toby held out his bowl and looked away. Ilaya had started to blow on the embers again. Only her hair tumbling down her back was visible. The cook filled up the bowl, and Toby headed off.

  He had gotten away with it. He lowered his eyes, trying to make himself invisible.

  All of a sudden, something tripped him up and he stumbled. A great peal of laughter accompanied his fall, as the boiling soup spread across the floor.

  “You don’t even look where you’re going, you savage!”

  The guards who had tripped him were treading their boots into the reddish liquid.

  “You’re always wanting to roll around in the mud, you bunch. . . .”

  “Hey, girl!” the canteen man ordered. “Collect his bowl. He’s eaten enough.”

  Ilaya obeyed. She left her fire and took a few steps toward the body that was writhing around on the floor. Toby got up at precisely that moment, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that Ilaya was looking at him.

  She was beautiful, but something about her beauty inspired fear.

  And she was smiling.

  “Hello,” she said.

  Toby went to join the others.

  At nightfall, Toby found Moon Boy curled up, his face buried in his knees, crying. Toby sat down next to him but didn’t dare say anything. The others were keeping their distance, lying on their sawdust carpets. Some were pretending to sleep so they wouldn’t disturb the two friends.

  “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” Moon Boy sniffed.

  Toby gulped. There was nothing he could say.

  “Answer me! She wanted to kill you, that day when I saw you both. . . .”

  “Yes,” whispered Toby.

  “What are we going to do?” Moon Boy sobbed.

  “It’s too late,” said Toby.

  Sure enough, there were footsteps at the entrance to the Grass people’s shelter — slow, booted footsteps drawing near. Moon Boy had heard these footsteps all too often in the evening. They sounded like the steps of a casual stroller, but they were actually the steps of an assassin.

  “That’s him,” Moon Boy whispered. “He’s coming.”

  The man whistled as he walked through the middle of the Grass people, who were all lying down. His terrifying shadow grew bigger.

  He came to a halt in front of Toby and Moon Boy. The whistling stopped. A dull sniggering could be heard.

  “Well, this really is marvelous. . . .”

  It was Tiger’s voice.

  “I’m a genius. . . .”

  He stopped laughing, bent down, and grabbed Toby by the hair to turn his face toward him.

  “I don’t know what you did to that young girl, but she doesn’t like you.”

  Toby kept quiet. Tiger let go of him and kicked Moon Boy.

  “As for you, it’s not like you were any help in finding him. I’ll take it out on your sister.”

  Moon Boy leaped on top of Tiger, who struck him with the handle of his harpoon. The little boy crumpled at his feet.

  “Nobody dare lay a hand on me! The sentry knows I’m here. If something happens to me, you’ll all be massacred one by one.”

  Then, turning back to Toby, he said, “Come on. Uncle Mitch will be pleased to bits to see you. And I’ll get to pocket my million.”

  The Grass people no longer dared to breathe. Moon Boy was watching his friend. What else could he do?

  In the silence of the shelter, the sound of quiet chuckling could be heard, followed by outright laughter. It was Toby.

  Tiger struck him on the knees, but Toby couldn’t stop himself. He received several more blows. Each time, he laughed more. He was choking from laughing so hard.

  The Grass people were horrified. They thought their friend had lost his mind. Only Moon Boy realized that something was going on. He started chuckling in turn. Tiger sent him rolling onto the ground. But at the other end of the shelter, there was more laughter. In the space of a few seconds, all of the prisoners had burst out laughing.

  “Be quiet!” ordered Tiger, blocking his ears and belching. “Or I’ll crush you all.”

  When he was at last able to contain his giggles, Toby said, “I’m coming. Here I am. Sorry . . . It’s nerves.”

  Tiger watched him stand up. Toby walked through the middle of the Grass prisoners, who were all drying their tears of laughter.

  Tiger followed him, vexed, but after a few steps he made Toby stop and pressed the spikes of his harpoon against his neck.

  “Would you mind telling me what made you laugh?”

  Toby smiled.

  “Nothing. It’s nothing, really.”

  “Speak!”

  “I’m worried you won’t find it funny.”

  “I’m ordering you to speak.”
/>   “It’s your reward of a million.” Toby chuckled.

  “You don’t believe me?”

  “Yes, but . . .”

  “You don’t think Mitch will pay?”

  “Of course he won’t pay, but . . .”

  “But what?”

  “But that’s not the funniest part.”

  “Stop!” roared Tiger. “Stop mocking me!”

  The tips of the harpoon touched Toby’s throat.

  “Four billion . . . You call that mocking someone?”

  “Four . . . ?” Tiger choked.

  “Four billion, yes.”

  Tiger retracted his harpoon. He was breathing heavily. The Grass people didn’t understand much of what was going on, but they were watching Little Tree intently so they could copy his reactions. The word “million” didn’t exist in their country. Nor did the word “billion,” for that matter. You just counted up until twelve and after that you said “a lot.”

  “The Tree Sto —” Tiger managed to articulate.

  “Yes, the Tree Stone,” said Toby.

  Tiger turned toward Moon Boy, who nodded proudly, even though he understood less and less of what was going on.

  The sound of more boots — someone was coming. Tiger looked nervous.

  “Tiger!” the new arrival called out. “Now, Tiger, it’s time to leave!”

  “Wait for me outside,” Tiger roared back.

  The man retreated. It was Elrom, the guard at the gates, the one who held the keys. He had let Tiger in, and he knew it was forbidden. He was always uneasy about letting this brute be alone with the Grass people.

  Toby felt the spikes of the harpoon on his neck again.

  “Have you got the Stone?” whispered Tiger.

  “Yes,” said Toby.

  Tiger turned around nervously. He was concerned about his colleague being so close.

  “Give it to me!”

  “Tomorrow at the same time,” Toby said. “We can come to an agreement.”

  Tiger rubbed his hair. He was dripping with sweat. Toby continued calmly. “Tomorrow I’ll give you the Stone if you don’t let on that I’m here.”

  Tiger took a step back. The billions were flashing before his eyes. All that money was munching on what remained of his brains. He tried to resist for a few more moments but ended up giving in to temptation.