“There has to be some other way,” said Adam.
“Not according to the Gylf. They said this has to happen.” Alex looked resigned, which made Logan angry.
“They said the tree would want this,” Dominic added.
“The tree would want this?” said Eve. “Because trees have feelings?”
“They probably do,” said Logan, “but I doubt they want to die.”
“It doesn’t want to die; it wants to save the forest,” said Alex. “I mean, you know how the Gylf talk. They said it was the Changing Tree’s purpose and that every living thing should be allowed to fulfill its purpose. Something about how humans are the only ones who have a problem with that.”
“Of course we are,” said Eve. “Because we’re the rabble-rousers, the dangerous ones.” Her laugh died quickly when no one joined in.
“Okay,” said Adam after a pause. “If we have to do it, we should get it over with. So how do we do this?”
“How do we do this?” flared Logan. “Just like that? Just ‘okay then, what’s the best way to destroy something so valuable no one can even understand it?’”
“Do you have any better ideas?” snapped Adam. “We can’t just let these things go roaming all over and destroying everything. No one else knows about them but us. The Gylf say we’re the ones who have to do it and this is the only way. It sucks, it really does, but that’s life. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
Logan had no argument, but this just felt wrong. It felt horrible and evil, and he couldn’t bring himself to go along with it like it was nothing. He stared off into the distance, struggling to figure out what he was feeling, having nothing to say.
Eve touched his arm. “You’re totally right, Logan. What you’re thinking is right. This is horrible. It’s wrong. But the wrong has already been done. The horrible person is whoever brought those bugs here. There’s nothing we can do to make that not true. We can only go on from here. We can only try to make the damage be as little as possible.”
“As little as possible? What if the leaves on that tree are worth more than all the other trees in the forest?”
“It doesn’t work like that,” said Alex. “That tree can’t survive all by itself.”
“Something else the Gylf said?”
“No,” said Alex. “Just something that’s true.”
Logan looked at Alex. He could see that she was thinking of the way the Changing Tree was buried deep in the woods. Was it protected there? As soon as the thought occurred to him, he knew it was true. All of a sudden the anger drained out of him, leaving a sick feeling in its place.
He swallowed. “Okay.”
Dominic looked around at each of them as they stood in a rough circle not far from Logan’s front door. When no one else said anything, he began, “So apparently the leaves are only good to us if they are picked right at the moment of changing. If we time it right, they will stay in their jewel form, and we’ll have to burn them like that.”
“We burn them in their jewel form?” asked Adam. “It seems like leaves would burn easier than stones.”
“The Gylf said that firemallow jewels burn really easy,” said Alex. “Actually, they said they burn hotter than the earth fires and twice as fast, or something like that. I don’t know what earth fires are, but you get the idea.”
“Once we’ve burned the leaves, we take the ashes and scatter them near the red spots,” said Dominic. “They will come and eat them. Then they die.”
“Right away?” asked Eve. “Like it was poison or something?”
“I don’t know,” said Alex. “The Gylf didn’t say how long it would take.
“So the only question is when do we do it,” said Dominic.
“The sooner the better,” Adam said.
“Yeah, but we have to decide if we do it at night or during the day,” Alex explained. “We have to burn the leaves soon after picking them, so if we pick at the changing hour tonight, we’ll be doing this in the dark. I’m not sure if that will work. Or if we can even all get away then.” She was looking at Logan.
“I can’t,” he said. “My mom’s on second shift, so she doesn’t get home until 1 in the morning.” He tried his best to seem nonchalant. “I don’t need to be there, though. You guys can just go without me.”
“Um, no,” said Eve. “We’ve been over this before. We go together. Something this big, we definitely all go together.”
There was a pause.
“Yeah,” said Adam. “We should be together.”
“Can we all make it at sunrise tomorrow?” asked Dominic.
“That depends,” said Eve. “Would you like to invite me to spend the night, Alex?”
Alex smiled. “Absolutely. It’s my birthday tomorrow.”
Eve laughed.
Adam shook his head. “You do know that lying to your mom is going to get you in huge trouble some day, right?”
“Can’t be any worse that that time in February when she locked me in my room during the biggest game of the season.” Eve shrugged, but Logan could see that she wasn’t as sure of herself as she tried to act.
“Okay, so if Eve sleeps at Alex’s, are we all on for the morning?” Dom asked.
“I’ll try,” said Logan.
“You don’t know if you can get away in the morning either?” said Alex.
“I probably can, but I’ll have to check with my mom when she wakes up.” Logan wasn’t looking forward to it. His mom was cool, but she was pretty stressed out these days.
“She does know that you’re a kid, right?” asked Adam.
Logan wanted to punch him, but instead he just shrugged.
“Don’t be a jerk,” said Eve. “Logan’s mom is great. She just has to work really hard. Tell her I need your help with something, Logan. Tell her I’m paying you back by babysitting so you can go to that drawing class at the library.”
“Not everyone likes to lie to their mother, you know,” said Dominic.
“It’s not a lie,” said Eve. “I do need his help. And Logan’s been wanting to go to that class for weeks now. He just hasn’t had the chance.”
Logan wasn’t sure if he felt more grateful or embarrassed. Eve had a way of doing that to him. He was relieved when Dominic moved on without comment.
“Okay then, meet at the tree just before sunrise?”
“What time will that be?”
“I looked it up this morning,” said Alex. “It’s 5:31 am.”
Adam groaned. “I’d better set two alarms.”
If it was still dark, it wasn’t really morning, in Logan’s opinion. It had taken him 20 minutes just to find a clean t-shirt by feel (and smell) and locate both shoes without waking up his whole family. He was going to have to ride fast to get to the Changing Tree before sunrise. Not that he would mind missing it. Every time he imagined himself ripping the leaves off that tree, he felt a little sick. It hadn’t been a good night’s sleep.
Closing the door as quietly as he could, he noticed that the light was on in Candace’s kitchen next door. It made him feel a little better to know that he wasn’t the only one up at this insane hour. Thirty seconds later he was on his bike speeding through the darkness.
He almost didn’t make it in time. It was harder to find his way through the woods in the dark than he had thought. When he finally stumbled out into the clearing around the Changing Tree, he was sporting at least four new bruises on his shins and the first light was beginning to show over the tree tops.
As they always did, the Gylf were standing in a ring around the clearing, faces towards the Changing Tree, eyes unblinking. His friends, however, were standing under the tree. Eve was looking around and waved when she saw him. Adam and Alex were looking up. Dominic was nowhere to be seen.
“You made it,” said Adam as Logan walked up. “We were starting to worry that something had happened.”
Logan didn’t answer. He was looking at the tree in front of him. As he got closer, he saw Dominic perched on a low
branch.
“We have to climb,” Logan said. “I didn’t think of that.”
“It’s not bad,” said Alex. “The branches are pretty evenly spaced, so once you pull up on that bottom one, you just have to climb to where you need to be.”
It’s like the tree is making it easy on us, thought Logan. Adam was climbing as Alex spoke. Eve was next.
Dominic spoke from up above. “Climb up as quick as you can. There isn’t much time. We need to spread out a bit. The Gylf seem to think we’re going to need to get as many leaves as possible, so the basic idea is just to each take an area and strip off as many as we can when the change hits. Keep stripping them off and just let them fall to the ground until the change is over. I don’t think they’ll come off after that.”
An ugly image of bare branches came into Logan’s head. No, he told himself, no more thinking. It’s better not to think about what you’re doing. He grabbed the lowest branch and boosted himself up. He was barely in position when the leaves around him started to glow.
If Logan had thought the tree wonderful when he watched it from the edge of the clearing, now it was breathtaking. Sitting on his branch, he suddenly found himself surrounded by shimmering green fire. For a moment he just stared, unmoving, at the glittering splendor. Then something fell past his face. He heard a tinkling crash, and more jewels were raining down on him. Above him, Alex was hard at work.
That snapped him out of it. Before he could think better of it, Logan’s hands were moving, scraping along the closest branch, sending shining leaves flying in every direction. How much time had he wasted just sitting there? He wasn’t sure. All he could do now was work as fast as possible. They had to get enough to kill all those red spots, or the Changing Tree’s sacrifice would be for nothing. Twisting and turning in every direction, Logan worked frantically at all the branches within reach. The light around him shifted from green to gold as he stripped the branches.
He had no idea how much time had passed when he ran his hands along one last branch only to find ordinary leaves under his fingers, leaves that didn’t fall as the others had. Only now did he realize that his hands were stinging where he had rubbed them raw in his hurry. Climbing down out of the tree was going to be a painful chore.
To delay that moment, he looked around. Not only were all the branches near him empty of leaves, many had been broken in his hurry. They stuck out at odd angles. One just out of reach was pointed right at him like an accusation. Beyond that, he cold see other bare patches where his friends had been at work. The once beautiful Changing Tree now looked like a dog with mange.
Down below, though, was the fruit of their hard work. Under the tree rose a mountain of leaf-shaped stones, not shining now but still reflecting back a bit of the sky above them.
Eve climbed down next to him with a grimace. “My hands are killing me. Why didn’t I think to bring gloves?”
Logan just nodded, not taking his eyes off the mound below them.
“Weird, huh? They didn’t change back after we picked them. I know the Gylf said that would happen, but it’s still crazy. That’s a pretty big pile. You think we got enough?”
Logan shrugged, and Eve answered her own question.
“I’m sure it’s enough. We’ll make it be enough. Come on. Time to climb down. We’ve still got a lot of work to do, and maybe we can get the Gylf to mash up some sanberries for our hands.”
Climbing down hurt just as much as Logan knew it would. He was glad he was near the bottom. At the lowest branch, he pulled his sweatshirt off and wrapped it around his hands before lowering himself and hanging. When he let go, he quickly felt the jewels under his feet and slipped and slid down to the ground. The others were dropping down all around the tree.
Celana and Terfol were waiting next to the pile of leaf stones. Terfol held out a small bowl made out of bark. “Pidras prepared some mashed sanberries. It seemed to him that this task would cause you some injury, and I believe he was correct.”
With a yelp of appreciation, Adam and Alex leaped toward the bowl.
“Bless you,” said Eve, who had gotten there first.
Only Dominic stayed staring at the stones, and it was obvious why as he absentmindedly removed a heavy pair of work gloves.
“You think they need to be burned at the explosion site?” he asked the Gylf.
“That would seem best,” Celana replied. “The ashes must reach the Red Spots while they are still warm to be most effective.”
“Load up our backpacks then?” asked Adam, looking much more relaxed now that his hands were painted pink.
“I brought some bags, too,” said Alex. “We have a bunch of those reusable shopping bag things, so I thought they might come in handy.”
“Yeah,” said Eve. “We’ve got way more than our backpacks can handle.”
Logan was last in line for the sanberry paste. He hated the sight of blood, especially his own, so he looked away as Terfol gently applied the berries. Unfortunately, the only other thing to look at was the sad, shorn Changing Tree with its bald patches and broken limbs. Suddenly he was glad of the pain in his hands. He felt like he deserved it.
“You are right to grieve for the tree,” said Terfol. “It is a sad loss of what was once beautiful.”
Logan felt a lump in his throat. Why was he getting so upset over this? No one else seemed that bothered. It just seemed so unfair. Why was destruction the only way to stop more destruction? Someone should have come up with a better solution than that.
“Grief is natural with loss,” Terfol went on. “But do not let your grief turn to guilt and blame. Loss is a natural part of gain, just as death is a natural part of life. What is our sorrow is also our joy. Think of the new life that will thrive because of what you do today. Think of this and rejoice.”
Logan’s hands felt much better now. “Thanks,” he said and hoped Terfol understood it was for more than the berries.
Loaded down with bags of leaf stones, the five kids trudged toward the explosion site. Adam had ridden his bike ahead a bit to make sure no one was around. The farmer’s truck was gone from his driveway, so they were hoping that meant that he was in town for a while.
Logan was last in line as they trailed over the field. His mind was still on the Changing Tree and the things that Terfol had said. He barely noticed his surroundings until he heard Eve give a little scream.
His head snapped up to see her ducking back under the police tape, her face white, her eyes wide. They almost collided, and for a minute he thought she was going to be sick all over him. He grabbed her arm to steady her.
“What is it?”
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” she babbled. “I can’t go over there. I can’t do it. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, they’re…” She closed her eyes and shook her head hard as if trying to erase her brain like an etch-a-sketch.
“It’s okay,” said Alex, coming up behind Eve and putting an arm around her in that way girls had. “I think maybe we’ll just stay here for a minute. Logan, if you want to go over to the pit, Dom and Adam are trying to set up the leaves for the fire. Brace yourself, though. It’s pretty horrible.”
With that introduction, Logan was sure he’d rather stay right there with the girls. Not that he could say that. Gritting his teeth, he lifted up the police tape and stepped toward the pit.
Remembering how the ground had seemed to move with little insects the last time they were here, Logan had been expecting a bit of disorientation, but nothing could have prepared him for what he saw in front of him.
The explosion site was definitely moving, but it was no longer a deep pit. Instead, a shallow hole teemed with insects. They were three times as large as the one they had taken away just days before and their color had lightened to a sick gray. They looked like enormous blisters, bulging and ready to pop, and they were packed in so tight they nearly filled the pit and some spilled out like tentacles on every side. Where those tentacles were, Logan couldn’t see the ground, only Red Spots,
wriggling and crawling all over each other, making the earth seem alive. A few stray bugs wandered near his own feet, but mostly they seemed determined to stick together.
Logan saw Dominic and Adam a few feet away, standing as close as they dared to this monstrosity and pointing. Trying desperately to ignore the popping sound under his feet, Logan walked over to them.
“We think if we just build the fire right here on the edge, it will be pretty easy to spread the ashes afterwards,” said Dominic as if there weren’t dozens of bugs crawling over his shoes and up his pant legs.
Logan nodded and opened his backpack.
“The sooner the better, right?” said Adam. “Should I go get the girls?”
“They can stay back until it’s time for spreading the ashes if they want,” said Dominic. “Just bring up their bags of leaves and the lighter. Alex has it in her pack.” He was already dumping out the bags he’d been carrying.
“Maybe we should make several piles along here,” said Logan, swallowing hard. “That way they’re already a little bit spread out.”
“Good idea.”
They worked quickly, but it wasn’t quick enough. Even as Logan dumped out the contents of his pack, the nearest tentacle reached him and swarmed over his feet. He and Dominic stopped to beat them back as best they could, but when Adam arrived with more leaves, they were still covered. There was nothing for it but to ignore them and get it over with as soon as possible. Logan tried not to think about it, tried to focus only on the piles of gems that now suddenly seemed like the most beautiful thing in the world. It didn’t really work.
As soon as all the piles were in place, Adam stepped forward with the lighter. No sooner had he clicked on the flame, when a dozen of the disgusting things launched themselves at his hand. They sizzled disgustingly as their flabby bodies extinguished the fire. Adam dropped the lighter with a cry. In seconds the lighter was nearly invisible under the crawling hordes.
The Broken Circle (The Book of Sight 2) Page 6