Chapter 62
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
Briar
I sat outside the stones surrounding the tree of unity. I didn’t dare get too close, in case I was the one unwittingly causing this. Plus, I couldn’t stand the idea of going any nearer; it was too depressing. But I couldn’t bring myself to leave it either. It was dying and shouldn’t be left alone.
When a shriveled leaf fell on my book, I brushed it aside. It crinkled against my fingers before sliding off the page. Remnants of the leaf remained; unlike the rose, these didn’t cling and didn’t crumble into ashes.
That’s because the roses were once shifters. The tree was always just a tree.
But it was still a living—for now—breathing thing that deserved saving. My gaze fell on the stones binding this kingdom together. At one time, the shifters had almost destroyed each other… and now something else was destroying them.
Gizzi sat on one of the stones, staring at the tree. He didn’t climb into the branches; he was afraid of hurting it.
I flipped through the pages of the book, searching for an answer within the tome, but coming up with nothing… as I’d known I would. I slammed the book shut and brushed another leaf aside when it landed on my face.
A flutter of wings alerted me that a sprite had arrived; I looked up to discover Zephyr hovering at my side. His mouth was pinched as he gazed anxiously at me.
“Is this because of me?” he asked.
I frowned at him. “Why would you say that?”
“Did I mess up the potion?”
“No.” I rested my hand on his arm. “I already told you that you didn’t do this. I wouldn’t lie to spare your feelings, especially when that would have been an easy fix. You could have made the potion completely wrong, and it still wouldn’t have done this.”
“What about…” He glanced behind him. “What about the spider? You said they were good luck. Did I bring bad luck down on us by killing it?”
“No, Zephyr. You didn’t do this.”
“Then what did?”
I’m beginning to think I did.
“I don’t know,” I said.
And I was beginning to fear I wouldn’t figure it out before it was too late.
“Are you okay?” Zephyr asked. “You look tired.”
“We all do.”
“Yeah, we do.”
Zephyr’s wings continued to beat the air while I stared at the tree. There had to be answers somewhere.
“If you need any help, I’m here,” he said as he rested a hand on my shoulder.
“Thank you.”
He squeezed my shoulder as Gizzi turned to study us. When Zephyr flew away, Gizzi resumed staring at the tree. I rubbed my temples and then my neck to ease the tension there, but nothing helped.
A dull throb was starting behind my eyes, and I swore it pulsed in rhythm with my heart. Swishing sounds came from behind me, and I turned to discover Zephyr sweeping up the sand.
Time had started moving again, but the noise didn’t help the pounding in my head. With nothing else to do, I flipped the book open again and scanned the pages.
“Ah… Briar.” I was so focused on reading a passage on pruning roses that Zephyr’s words didn’t infiltrate at first. “Briar!”
I jumped and spun toward him when he yelled; the pounding in my head intensified. “What?” I demanded.
Zephyr didn’t notice the harsh tone of my voice. He had Knox’s boot in one hand as he stared at the floor with his brow furrowed.
“Are they… do they… are those spiders supposed to do this?” he asked.
I set the book down and rose. “Do what?”
Zephyr didn’t answer me as he gazed at the floor. Confusion and horror marred his face.
“Is it because I killed it? Did I unleash bad luck on us?” he muttered.
“I already told you that’s not possible,” I assured him as I approached.
“But… but…” Zephyr stammered, yet no other words came out.
The distress on his face caused the hair on my nape to rise. I’d accidentally killed a silkfang before; I hadn’t seen it and stepped on it in Nightshade.
The resulting crunch was stomach-churning, but I certainly hadn’t gazed at it with the abject revulsion on Zephyr’s face.
I had to scrape it off the bottom of my boot, which made things worse, but Zephyr didn’t look revolted; he looked like someone had walked over his grave… or as if he could hear the dead.
I doubted the dead were talking to him, but anything could be possible. Everything had become topsy-turvy since coming here.
When I stopped beside Zephyr, I understood his confusion when I spotted the charred hole in the floor. It was the perfect shape of a silkfang’s body with its legs sprawled out. When Zephyr crushed the spider, some of those legs folded awkwardly beneath it.
The spider’s remnants had sunk a good inch into the wooden floor. The surrounding space looked like something had set it ablaze, leaving the surface charred. When Zephyr turned the boot over in his hand, my mouth parted when he revealed the spider-shaped hole in the sole.
“What in the name of the gods,” I breathed.
“Is this normal?” Zephyr asked.
“This is as far from normal as it gets,” I whispered.
Tilting my head back, I studied the rafters as an unsettling feeling grew in my stomach. “Have you seen any more of them around?” I whispered. “And keep your voice low.”
I wasn’t sure that mattered; if they were watching, they already knew of Zephyr’s discovery and that one of their brethren was dead. Had they all skittered away into hiding when one of them fell?
“I’ve seen a couple, but not many,” Zephyr whispered back.
As I turned to survey the room, I wondered how many sets of eyes were staring back at me, assessing the situation and calculating their next move. I had to find a silkfang before they left the kingdom… or perhaps they didn’t plan to leave at all.
“What’s going on?” Gizzi whispered.
I had no idea why he was being so quiet when the spiders couldn’t hear him. “I have to find a living silkfang as soon as possible.”
“Zephyr, can you fly into the rafters to see if you can spot any. If you find one, bring it to me, but make sure it’s alive.”
“Can I bash myself into the wall instead?” he inquired.
“Right after you bring it to me.”
“Do I really have to touch it?”
I worried that if he touched one, it might cause some venom, or whatever the spiders contained, to secrete on him. “If you can get a jar and get it into the jar without touching it, that would be preferred.”
“I can do that.”
He turned and flew away. I continued searching the rafters as Gizzi leapt onto the tree and scrambled up through its branches.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“Looking. There’s not much more venomous than me.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re immune to venoms.”
He stopped and turned to me. “My skin’s a lot thicker than it looks. It takes a lot to get through it.”
“Just be careful.”
“You don’t need to be careful when you’re as good as me.”
I rolled my eyes as Zephyr buzzed back into the room. He shot into the rafters with a jar and spoon in hand.
He searched the shadows as he flew across the beams while Gizzi continued through the tree. Gizzi’s movements caused more leaves to fall, and the last of the flowers settled on the ground, but I didn’t stop him. This was more important.
I glanced back at the hole in the floor and the silkfang embedded in it. No, not a silkfang… something designed to resemble it. Which meant it was also designed to appear beneficial while sowing an insidious poison throughout the kingdom.
How did I miss this?
How could you have known?
That inner voice was completely right, but I couldn’t shake the guilt enveloping me. There was no way I could have known the spiders hid a deceptive secret, but I should have looked more closely at them when things started going wrong around here.
Why? You haven’t seen one in weeks, and in the history of the kingdoms, silkfangs have always been good.
Again, that little inner voice was as reasonable as ever, but the guilt remained.
That’s because you know the truth. If the spiders are the reason the roses and the tree are dying, it’s because your mother sent them here.
And there it was. While I couldn’t blame myself for not suspecting the silkfangs, and I wasn’t responsible for her actions, it was my mother who’d somehow done this. I did not doubt it.
“I’ve got one,” Gizzi said. “It’s trying to run.”
“Be careful,” I cautioned.
He was at the very top of the tree. The spider must have settled there in the hopes of going undetected, but it couldn’t know Zephyr wasn’t the only one looking for it.
Gizzi scampered across the branch and disappeared into the tree. For a second, I could only stand there and blink as I tried to figure out how he’d vanished. Then I realized he hadn’t disappeared; he’d darted into a small hole in the tree.
“Gizzi!” I called when he screeched within the hollow. Panic gripped me when he didn’t respond. “GIZZI!”
“I don’t see anything up here!” Zephyr called down.
I didn’t acknowledge him as my attention remained on the tree. Muffled scratching came from within as Gizzi’s claws raked the bark.
My heart hammered as I stepped forward. I couldn’t lose my friend.