A Grave Tree

by Jennifer Ellis

  Sandy darted a helpless look in Sylvain’s direction. “I think you’re just confused, Mark.”

  Another surge of energy erupted from Mark, but this time Sandy responded with her own blast, and both groups sailed backward and away from each other, landing on their backsides.

  “Mark, we’re wasting time with this,” Sandy said through gritted teeth. “Sylvain, will you get control of your son?”

  Son? Mark was Sylvain’s son?

  Sylvain rose slowly after flicking a glance along the edge of the ceiling and staring directly at the duct. Mark, absorbed in gathering more energy, appeared not to have noticed what Sandy had said.

  Sylvain bent down to put his hand on Mark’s shoulder. Mark jerked away, but he was jolted out of his trance for a second.

  “Mark, stop, please. We have to help Ms. Beckham and Mr. Sinclair. I’ll come with you down to the dam.”

  Mark’s hands flew to his ears and he pulled his knees into his chest.

  Abbey’s brain catapulted around in her skull in turmoil. Was Sylvain actually going to help Sandy? Was that the best thing to do? Could they actually save her parents? There was no way he could rebuild the diversion with his mind. Working together, the two of them had barely constructed a flimsy raft.

  Sandy shook her head. “I need you to start on the diversion. I’ll take Mark.”

  Caleb fidgeted beside Abbey. “They can’t rescue Mom and Dad. The pentagram isn’t working. Unless Sandy knows something we don’t,” he whispered.

  “I’ll need some helpers for the diversion,” Sylvain said. “Your two men here should do just fine.”

  Abbey felt as if her heart had plummeted out of the duct. She was surprised it didn’t hit the cement floor with a splat. Sylvain was going to help Sandy.

  Sandy’s eyes narrowed. “They have no special abilities.”

  Sylvain shrugged. “I can still draw their energy.” There was a coolness to his statement that sent a frisson of unease dancing across Abbey’s neck, like they, as witches, were akin to vampires.

  When Sandy hesitated, Sylvain continued. “What you’re asking is a huge task. I can’t do it without help. Do you want the diversion rebuilt or not?”

  “Very well, but you need to convince Mark to help me.”

  Sylvain nodded. “He’s probably just hungry. He doesn’t do very well when he’s hungry.”

  Sylvain bent to Mark, his long limbs folding like a giant accordion. He withdrew something from his coat pocket. The piece of stone, which he’d tied in a handkerchief. He spoke in a slow and soothing voice, very unlike the way he usually addressed Mark. “Here’s a sandwich, Mark. It will make you feel better. I need to go outside with these men and rebuild the diversion. I want you to remember what your mother always said about how important it is for everyone to help each other and make sure everyone has a soft place to land. Didn’t she always say having tea together makes it all okay? It’s important that everyone gets home, and you’re the only person who can help us with that. Put the sandwich in your bag for later.” He patted Mark awkwardly on the arm, and Mark, still rolled in his ball, largely ignored him. But he took the stone, and Abbey thought she saw a flicker of recognition in his eyes as he felt the solid edges.

  “He’s trying to draw off the men,” Abbey said to Caleb. “So we can use the stone to go home. That’s why he’s talking about tea and soft landings.”

  Caleb shook his head. “Maybe he’s really trying to help Sandy.”

  Sylvain rose and looked at Sandy. “It won’t take me long to have that diversion rebuilt. About ten minutes, I’d say.”

  He was totally lying now.

  “Ian will come with you too,” Sandy said, “and make sure you’re not up to anything.”

  Sylvain nodded and turned away. “Make sure you help, Mark.”

  The two men with guns followed him, and as Ian went to join them, Abbey could have sworn she heard Sandy say to Ian in a low voice, “Find those kids.”

  When the others had left, Sandy approached Mark.

  “Okay, Mark, we need to go down to the dam so you can show me how to get in that room. No more funny stuff with lying and locking me out. I know we haven’t exactly gotten off on the right foot, but we need to work together now.”

  “No,” Mark said firmly.

  “Should we go help her with Mark?” Caleb said.

  “Are you nuts?” Abbey said. “We’re supposed to escape with Mark, and Jake. That’s what Sylvain wanted.”

  “I’m not so sure about that. Maybe she’s actually trying to rescue Mom and Dad and Sylvain and Ian are helping.”

  “Do not fall in the Sandy thrall again,” Abbey hissed.

  “I’m not,” Caleb said stubbornly. “I’m just saying we should be open to the possibilities.”

  Possibilities. Abbey decided she much preferred probabilities.

  Sandy had now bent over Mark and was shaking him slightly. The back of her shirt had risen up, and in the small of her back was a tattoo of an upside-down pentagram.

  “Look at that,” Abbey said.

  “What?” Caleb said.

  “Jake said Selena’s key to the tunnels was an upside-down pentagram. Upside-down pentagrams have traditionally been considered evil. You said you could read people’s intentions. If you don’t believe me, read hers. Reach your mind out. What do you feel?”

  “I can’t get into Sandy’s mind,” Caleb said.

  “That’s because she’s probably blocking you because she’s evil. You’re always talking to me about believing. You need to believe. Let yourself go deeper. I wouldn’t have believed I could build screens, but I can. I think we’re somehow tapping into gravitational waves. I think that was Mrs. Forrester’s message. Leaves in Grave Tree. Believe in Gravity. Just try.”

  Caleb knotted his eyebrows, but he obediently closed his eyes.

  Sandy had obviously said something to Mark, because now he was screaming with his hands pressed against his ears. Sandy stood over him, her hands on her hips. Abbey could once again sense the energy building around her.

  She grasped Caleb’s arm. “Hurry. She’s mean to Mark. That should be enough to tell you what kind of person she is. If you can’t believe in your own abilities, believe in me and Mark.”

  Caleb snapped his eyes open again, just as Sandy, as if sensing their presence, threw a look over her shoulder in their general direction. Caleb’s face had turned stark. “I can believe, Abbey. We need to help Mark,” he said.

  “We’ve got to figure out how to get down there.” Abbey started pulling and shaping molecules from the air, preparing to form them into something. But what?

  Caleb raked his hand through his hair. “How? We can’t jump. I could maybe lower you with the cable, but then how would I get down?”

  “Maybe I could build something for us to land on.” They were in the middle of the room, almost above one of the six generators. Maybe they could grab the lip of the duct and swing over to it, but it was still a good eight meters down. And if they missed…

  “Can you build a ladder?”

  Abbey steadied her brain and tried to form the molecules into the shape of a ladder—two rails, with regularly spaced rungs—but she couldn’t push the molecules into specific positions with the level of precision required. Her brain ached from believing, and she looked at the amorphous blob that she’d managed to construct. “I don’t have enough control. Maybe I can only build walls and rafts.” She paused, unsure if she should say what she was about to say. “I think Mark has to shoot us with the gravity gun. That’s what Sylvain meant by making sure everyone has a soft place to land. We have to jump.” And hope, Abbey thought.

  “But Sandy’s right on top of him.”

  Abbey opened her mouth to reply, but right then, Digby launched out of the duct and fell through the air, his little feet pedaling. He landed with a slap on the cement floor, miraculously unharmed, then plunged forward, leaping at Sandy’s leg and si
nking his teeth into her calf. Sandy whirled and started bashing the rat with her fist.

  “Mark, shoot us!” Abbey yelled over Sandy’s howls, rolling over onto her stomach and thrusting her legs out of the duct. “Take my hand,” she ordered Caleb. If there was ever a time for belief—blind, stupid belief—this was it.

  Mark hesitated for only a second before whipping out the gun and shooting it in the direction of the duct. Abbey hoped he had good aim. She let go, prayed, and found herself sinking slowly to the ground, dragging Caleb headfirst with her. It was not quite like flying—they were still falling—but the electromagnetic radiation had muted the effect of acceleration due to gravity.

  Abbey’s feet touched the ground gently, and Caleb managed to flip from his hands to his knees. At the far end of the room, Abbey saw Jake slumped over the podium on the docks. A cable, similar to the one Mark and Caleb had found, ran from his chest to both docks. Was he even still alive? The screaming sound had intensified. It felt like it might shatter her teeth.

  With one last punch, Sandy sent Digby flying, and then her face flipped into a smile.

  “I was wondering where the two of you had gotten to,” she said. Her voice was sweet, but her hand flew into the air and energy sparked from it.

  Abbey found herself slammed hard against one of the generators, her head hitting the metal casing painfully. She was vaguely conscious of Caleb beside her. It felt like Sandy was squeezing the oxygen out of her lungs and brain. Maybe this was how she was going to die.

  “I’m done with this ridiculous cajoling,” Sandy said. “Tell me the combination to get into that room now, Mark, or you’ll never see your friends again.”

  “You can’t kill us,” Caleb managed to say. “It will create paradox.”

  “Who said anything about killing?” Sandy replied. “Besides. That’s only if you change the future irretrievably. I’m future Sandy. This is my present, so there are no restrictions on me killing you. I don’t have time for this. I need to get out there and make that useless man build my diversion.”

  Mark had staggered to his feet. Abbey saw the shimmer of energy around him too. But Sandy raised her other hand and thrust him against the wall. Mark’s dry bag flew from his hands and landed on the floor, spilling papers and pencils.

  “My maps,” Mark said.

  One of the papers flew lazily through the air and came to rest at Sandy’s feet.

  She glanced at it, then stared at it. “It’s the pentagram. From the wormhole. You had a drawing all this time?” Her hair bounced as she shook her head. “Of course you did. I should have known. Well, that’s very convenient. Now I don’t need you anymore. At least not for information purposes.”

  Her face had turned very nasty, and the force pressing Abbey against the generator intensified until she was gasping for breath. She felt Caleb struggling to stay on his feet next to her. Mark seemed to be trying to push back, but his efforts were futile against Sandy’s greater strength.

  Abruptly the force stopped, and Abbey felt herself sagging, choking and struggling for breath.

  Then the entire wall to Abbey’s left, behind the generators, began to slide open, like a giant garage door. Beyond it, the room extended into a cavernous area with a dirt floor.

  A tree occupied the center of this new area—a dark, twisted Madrona with human-sized pods hanging from every conceivable branch, like giant ghostly leaves. Inside the pods were people, their faces frozen in ghastly expressions, the material of the pods shrink-wrapped tightly around their bodies. Abbey recognized Frank and Francis on one of the closer branches, and some of the other ancients on branches farther away. Men and women in strange and dated attire. The missing ancients. Dangling directly in front of her was Sam, his face white, his mouth gaping in a silent cry. And then she realized: it was the tree that was whining, emitting a high-pitched squeal.

  A rush of bile gathered in her throat and she almost started to retch.

  Leaves in Grave Tree.

  Mrs. Forrester was telling them that the other witches were being made into leaves in a grave tree. The drawing Mark had thought was a pirate wasn’t a pirate. It was Frank and Francis. Were they all dead? Was Sam dead?

  A scream came from right behind Abbey, and she turned to see Mark, staring open-mouthed at the tree. The noise had roused Jake as well, and he stared at them through drawn and tortured eyes.

  Sandy had circled around so that she was behind Mark. She raised her hand, and Abbey, Mark, and Caleb were thrown between the generators, landing six meters away beneath the outer branches of the tree, staring up at its spindly and tangled limbs. Up close, Abbey could see that it was not a Madrona. The bark was wrong, and this tree exuded evil—it was like the Madrona’s malevolent twin. They all scrambled to their feet and tried to back away, but it was like an invisible wall of energy was holding them beneath the tree. Its limbs twitched and writhed, slowly reaching out in their direction.

  “Finally, some powerful witches to supply energy,” Sandy said from behind them. “The tree will be very happy with the three of you and your oh-so-pure bloodlines.”

  “You can’t do this,” said Caleb, turning to face Sandy, while Abbey moved so she had her back to him, facing the tree. “What are you doing with these people? Why is the tree screaming?”

  “I’m drawing their energy. The tree is unhappy because the turbines are down. It’s a voracious consumer.”

  “You aren’t providing energy to Coventry City. You’re providing it to the tree?” Caleb said.

  “Yes and no. It is going through the tree and Jake to Coventry City, but it’s going to my special energy plant, not the hospital. Sylvain was always a sucker for a good cause.”

  Mark had entirely crumpled and openly wept.

  Abbey tried to edge away from the tree, toward the relative safety of the generators, but the force of energy behind her was so strong, she couldn’t budge an inch, except in the direction of the tree.

  “You first, Little Miss Science Project,” Sandy said. Abbey looked over her shoulder. Sandy stood between the generators with her arms outstretched.

  “The magnet,” she muttered to Caleb. “Free the magnet. Make sure it has a straight path to Sandy.”

  Caleb fumbled around in his pocket as a creepy branch of the tree stretched forward and reached for Abbey with long grasping fingers. Abbey cringed and screamed.

  Mark sent a blast of energy at the tree, and it screeched and recoiled.

  Caleb opened the box shielding the magnet. It flew through the air and right through Sandy, landing on the outside of a generator with a loud clunk. But instead of wearing a shocked look and having blood pouring from a hole in her stomach, Sandy laughed. The magnet had passed through her like she was a ghost.

  “She’s not here,” Abbey murmured. “She’s not here,” she said louder, to Mark and Caleb. “She’s doing the same trick Selena did yesterday. Don’t observe her. Close your eyes. Unbelieve her. Don’t collapse the wave function, and she won’t be here.”

  “Your little physics tricks won’t work on me,” Sandy said. “The wave function is already collapsed.”

  Abbey spoke over her. “She needs to be a constant stream of particles to appear in front of us. Stop collapsing the wave function. Unbelieve as hard as you’ve ever believed. She’s not here.”

  Abbey wondered if the tree could also be unbelieved. She kept her eyes closed and ground her teeth together. Sandy was not there in the room with them. She couldn’t hurt them.

  “I’m here!” Sandy yelled, but her voice seemed to have grown more distant.

  Somehow the pressure on Abbey’s back lessened, and Abbey started to back away from the tree. She felt Mark and Caleb doing the same. She turned and looked behind her. The dry bag lay abandoned on the floor.

  Suddenly the force slammed against them again, launching them forward onto their knees, and the sound of Sandy’s laughter filled the room.

  “I believed,” Mark
said in a small voice.

  The tree was once again reaching for Abbey. This was definitely how she was going to die.

  A figure swung out of the air and closed its arms around her chest, carrying her with it. Abbey screamed and fought maniacally, then realized it was Ian swinging from the air duct like Tarzan, the cable tied around his waist. Their trajectory carried them to the top of one of the generators, where he landed and set her down.

  Sandy turned, her face ugly, and nearly hit them with another blast of energy before she saw it was Ian.

  “What are you doing, sweetie?” Ian said. “That doesn’t look like a very friendly tree.”

  “Where are Derek and Brian? Where’s Sylvain? Where’s my diversion?” Sandy demanded. Although her expression was furious, there was a brief sad sort of hitch in it, as if she might have really cared about Ian.

  “Derek and Brian met with a rather unfortunate end. Sylvain is right up there in the air duct, and I’m afraid we’re going to have to cancel the honeymoon. I should have mentioned that I’m not a big fan of feeding young girls to trees.”

  Sandy sent a bolt of energy in their direction, but Ian jumped off the back of the generator, pulling Abbey with him. She landed hard on the cement, her teeth jolting together.

  “I hate you,” Sandy said. “I was just using you to get the kids here anyway.”

  “That just isn’t the way to start a relationship,” Ian called from behind a generator. “I should have taken warning from the way your most recent husband died. You’re outnumbered, Sandy. I’d give up.”

  “Why? None of you have any abilities that can even come close to matching mine. What are you going to do? Charm me?”

  “She isn’t even here,” Abbey said to Ian. “She can jump to superposition if we go after her.”

  “We saw. Sylvain says we have to draw her away from the docks. Then she’ll have to come through for real.”

  Caleb’s yells cut through the room. The tree had him by the torso and had pulled him into the air. A slick clear film had started to drip down Caleb as he struggled in its clutches.