Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
We took a boat to another floating hut, which was adorned with trailing lily of the valley flowers.
When we stepped inside, I looked around in confusion.
Instead of being filled with books like the libraries at Evergreen Academy and at the tree conservatory, the space was overflowing with defensive plants.
Wild vines snaked across the fronts of shelves of potted plants, as if daring someone without a defensive affinity to take a pot.
“Umm… where are the books?” I finally asked.
“The plants like to hide them,” Petra said. “Try the quill again.”
To my surprise, the quill spun slowly to the left, and I walked forward, following its direction. The space was filled with thousands of plants. And if our evidence had led us in the right direction, one of them was hiding the Vanished Compendium.
The quill led me toward the center of the maze of a library, until it was pointing directly at a striking mulberry tree. The quill began to emit a soft glow. I studied the tree, which was covered in rich red and black berries.
“Isn’t this the tree da Vinci depicted in one of his murals?” I asked.
“You’ve been studying,” Petra said with a nod. “The Sala delle Asse in Milan. He was captivated by the tree because its leaves were used to make silk. I wonder if this hiding place was intentional.”
I approached the tree and laid a hand on its trunk then jumped back as the bark began to peel outward. Moments later, a book tumbled from inside the tree. I gasped and hurried to grab it before it could fall to the ground.
“I wondered how that would work,” Petra said. “Every plant in here delivers its book a little differently and under varying levels of coaxing.”
“Should I open it?” I asked, a surreal sense of excitement coursing through me.
“The book came to you, Briar. Every decision from here on out is yours.”
With a deep breath, I took hold of the thick cover, which was free of dust—presumably absorbed by the mulberry tree it had been living in—and looked at the first page.
It was blank.
I flipped to the second page. Also blank. More quickly, I swiped through the entire book. “There’s nothing here,” I said, panic beginning to set in.
Petra stepped closer. “Are you sure?”
“I don’t see anything on the pages.”
“If there’s one thing a defensive affinity should always remember, Briar, it’s that things aren’t always as they appear.”
I sucked in a breath. “You think there could be some kind of invisible ink on the pages?” I asked.
“I’d be disappointed if there wasn’t,” Petra said, a note of excitement in her voice. “And I have a few ideas of how to make it appear.”