Barka leaned against the desk. “That’s a bit random.”
“Their name comes from Greek melas, which means both apples and sheep,” Brook said.
“This explains why she’s scared of Yu Fong,” I said. “He’s all about heat and fire. Fire and trees don’t play well together.”
“And someone left a wolf print on her desk. Wolves are the natural enemies of sheep,” Barka said.
“Someone was trying to terrorize her.” Brook dropped into the chair, as if suddenly exhausted. “And none of us ever paid attention long enough to see it.”
“It was Lisa.” I scanned the entry for the dryad. Shy, reclusive, blah-blah-blah . . . No natural enemies. No mention of any mythological wolves.
“How do you know?”
“She has a wolf inside her. I saw it. That’s why her powers are stronger. I think she made a deal with something and I think that something wants Ashlyn.”
They looked at each other.
“Just what kind of magic do you have, exactly?” Barka asked.
“The right kind.” I pulled a chair out and sat down next to Brook. “If Lisa had made a deal with a three-headed demon or some sort of chimera, I could narrow it down, but a wolf, that could be . . .”
“Anything,” Brook finished. “Almost any mythology with a forest has a canid. It could be French or Celtic or English or Russian or anything.”
“Can any of you remember her saying anything about a wolf? Maybe there’s a record of books she checked out?”
“I’ll find out.” Brook got up and made a beeline to the library desk.
I flipped through the book some more. Dryads weren’t too well-known. They were just supposed to be these flighty creatures, easily spooked, pretty. Basically sex objects. I guess Ancient Greeks didn’t really have a lot of access to porn so it must’ve been fun to imagine that every tree hid a meek girl with big boobies.
Somehow I had to untangle Ashlyn, and not just from that apple tree, but from this entire situation. I didn’t know for sure if Lisa had made some sort of deal with the creature. I could be wrong—it could be forcing her. The only thing I knew for sure was that I alone didn’t have the strength to take it on in a fight. My magic wasn’t the combat kind and that thing . . . well, from the intensity of the wolf’s magic, it would give even the Pack’s fighters pause.
Sometimes I wished I had been born a shapeshifter. If I was Curran, I’d just bite that wolf’s head off.
Curran. Hmm. Now there was a smart thought. I pulled a piece of scratch paper from the stack on the library desk, wrote a note, and read it. He would do it. After I pointed out all of his shortcomings, he would do it just to prove me wrong. I felt all happy with myself.
Brook came back with a disgusted expression on her face. “Apple trees. She checked out books on apple trees.”
“That’s okay. Barka, can you take this note to Yu Fong?”
He shrugged. “Sure. I like to live dangerously.” He took the note out of my fingers. “Later!” He winked at Brook and took off.
“You’re going to fight the wolf,” Brook said. “You are the stupidest person I’ve ever met. We need to take this to adults now.”
“I think Gendun already knows what’s going on. He wouldn’t have missed the tree coming to life. He didn’t seem frantic about Ashlyn’s disappearance and he said that the locating spell indicated she was on the grounds. I think that I’m meant to solve this one myself.”
“He would be putting your life in danger.” Brook shoved her glasses back up her nose. “And Ashlyn’s.”
“I can’t explain it. I just know that I’m trusted to do this on my own.” Maybe it was something only I could do. Maybe Ashlyn would trust another girl her age, but not an adult. Maybe Gendun was just clueless. I had no idea. I just had to get Ashlyn out of that tree.
When I was stuck in my old school, there were times I would’ve hid in a tree if I could have. I knew Kate and Curran and even Derek, the dimwit, would come to rescue me. But I knew none of my school friends would. Sometimes you just want a kid like you to care. Well, I was that kid.
“I’m coming with you,” Brook announced.
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” I told her.
She pushed her glasses up at me.
“Fine.” I grinned. “Get yourself killed.”
? ? ?
I WAITED IN the courtyard on one of the little benches on the edge of the wards, reading my little book in plain view. I’d borrowed it from Brook. It was explaining how the universe started with a giant explosion. I understood about two words in it, and those were the and and.
The day was dying down. Most students were long gone and those who lived in the dormitory had left campus, too. Strangely, no teachers came up and interrogated me or demanded to know when I was planning on leaving. That only confirmed my suspicion that Gendun knew all along what I was up to. Maybe he had some sort of secret adult reason for handling this problem through me. Maybe it was a test. I didn’t really care. I just waited and hoped the magic would hold.
The dusk had arrived on the wings of a night moth, silent and soft. The sky above me darkened to a deep, beautiful purple. Stars glowed high above, and below them, as if inspired by their light, tiny fireflies awoke and crawled from their shelter in the leaves. Late enough.
I put my book on the bench and started toward the wards. The magic still held, and when I focused, using my sensate vision, the glowing walls of the wards shimmered slightly. I walked along the first gap and paused. I was pretty sure I’d be followed. Lisa alone might not be capable of remembering all the gaps in the invisible fence, but a wolf would follow his nose and my scent.
I’d have to ask people in the Pack how to make my scent signature stronger. If I had had dandruff, I’d scratch my head, but I didn’t. I dragged my hand through my blond hair anyway and moved on, walking along the next ward to the narrow gap.
I weaved my way through the rings of defensive spells, taking my time, pausing at the gaps, until finally I emerged in the clear space around the tree. Blossoms sheathed the branches. Delicate flowers with white petals blushing with faint pink bloomed between tiny pink buds.
I hoped I was doing the right thing. Sometimes it’s really hard to figure out what the right thing is. You do something, and you wish you could go back in time for five seconds and undo it or unsay it, but life doesn’t work that way.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I pulled a Red Delicious apple from my pocket. The skin of the fruit was so red, it was almost purple. I crouched and rolled the apple gently to the tree’s roots. It came to rest against the trunk.
The bark of the tree shifted, crawled . . . A bark-sheathed leg separated from the trunk and stepped into the grass around the tree. The toes touched the grass and the bark melted into human skin. A moment, and a short petite girl crouched in the grass. I caught my breath. Ashlyn’s hair had gone completely white. Not just blond or platinum. White.
She picked up the apple. “Red Delicious.”
“Hi, Ashlyn.”
She glanced at me with green eyes. “Hi. So you found me.”
“It wasn’t very hard.”
A spark of magic flared beyond the wards. Ashlyn cringed, her eyes wide. “It’s coming!”
“It will be okay.”
“No, you don’t understand! The wolf is coming.”
Lisa walked up to the outer ward.
“She’s here!” Ashlyn squeaked. “Go away! You’ll get hurt.”
“Trust me.”
Lisa dashed through the wards, running fast, following my trail. I stepped in front of Ashlyn.
Lisa burst out of the ward maze and stopped. “Thank you for showing me the way.”
I kept myself between her and Ashlyn. As long as Lisa concentrated on me, she wouldn’t look behind her to see who was following her through the ward. “What is the wolf?”
“You saw him?”
“Yep.”
Lisa sighed. “It’s a forest spirit. It’s called Leshii.”
“It’s a creature of the forest?” Ashlyn gripped my arm. “But why does it want to hurt me? It’s like me.”
“It wants your blood,” Lisa said. “It’s weak, and your blood would make it stronger.”
“It wants to eat me?” Ashlyn whispered.
“Pretty much. Look, I never had a problem with you. I’m just tired of being Lisa the Dud.”
“How did you make the deal?” I asked her.
“I let it out of the Mage Academy,” Lisa said. “My dad showed it to me. The mages trapped it during the last magic wave and gave it some trees, to keep it alive while they studied it, but the trees weren’t enough. It wants a forest and I want people to take me seriously. It’s a win-win.”
“Except for Ashlyn, who will be eaten alive. No biggie,” I said. Bitch.
“What am I supposed to do?” Lisa’s voice went up really high and I saw that same fear I glimpsed earlier. Except now it was in her eyes and written all over her face. “I didn’t know what it wanted when I took it out. The deal was, I carry it out inside me and it gives me powers. I didn’t know it was going to kill her!”
“Are you a total moron? That’s the first thing they teach you in any school,” I growled. “Never make deals with magic creatures. It’s a spirit of the damn forest! Do you know how powerful it is? What the fuck did you think would happen?”
“I’m tired of listening to you,” Lisa snarled. “This is over. Nobody asked you to stick your nose where it didn’t belong. I told you to leave and you didn’t listen. You can’t fight it. And now you’re both going to die, so who is a moron now, huh?”
“You’re a terrible person,” Ashlyn told her.
“Whatever . . .” Lisa’s arms snapped up and out, as if she was trying to keep from falling. A scream filled with pain and terror ripped out of her. A phantom wolf burst out of her chest, huge, shaggy, glowing with green magic. It landed on the grass, towering over us. Its fur turned gray. The wolf’s cavernous mouth gaped open, suddenly solid. Monstrous fangs rent the air.
“Now!” I yelled.
Yu Fong stepped through the ward into the clearing. His irises glowed with orange and in their depth I saw tiny spirals of flames.
The wolf spun to face him.
Magic unfurled from Yu Fong like petals of a fiery flower. It shone with scarlet and beautiful gold and shaped itself into an outline of a translucent beast. It stood on four muscular, strong legs, arms with huge claws rippling with flames. Scales covered its body. Its head belonged to a meld of Chinese dragon and lion, and long whiskers of pure red streamed on both sides of its jaws. Spikes bristled among its crimson mane and its eyes were pure molten lava. Within this beast Yu Fong smiled, a magic wind tugging at his hair.
Wow. He was a dragon.
The wolf charged, aiming for Lisa. Yu Fong stepped into its path, knocking Lisa out of the way. She fell on the grass. The dragon opened its mouth. Flame burst with a roar, like a tornado. The fire engulfed the wolf, and the shaggy beast screamed, opening its mouth, but no sound came.
The wolf lunged at Yu Fong, biting at the dragon with its enormous teeth. Yu Fong clenched his fists. A wall of towering flames shot out from the dragon and wrapped itself around the wolf.
Heat burned my skin.
The wolf writhed in the cocoon of flame, biting and clawing to get free. Yu Fong’s face was serene. He leaned back, laughed softly within the beast, and the fire exploded with pure white heat, singeing my hair.
Ashlyn hid her face in her hands.
The wolf burned, crackling and sparking. I watched it burn until nothing was left except for a pile of ashes.
The dragon melted back into Yu Fong. He stepped to the pile of flames and passed his hand over it, so elegant and beautiful, he seemed unreal. The ashes rose in a flurry of sparks, up into the sky, and rained on the courtyard beyond the wards, settling to the ground like beautiful fireflies.
“Well, that’s that,” Brook said, at the outer ward. “Ashlyn, I have this blanket here for you.”
Yu Fong stepped toward us, and Ashlyn took a step toward the tree.
“Don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you,” he said, his voice soothing. “Come, let’s get you dressed.”
Around us, the world clenched. The magic vanished, abruptly, like the flame of a candle being blown out by a sudden draft. The wards disappeared. The garden seemed suddenly mundane.
Well. How about that?
Yu Fong escorted Ashlyn away from the tree, guiding her toward Brook.
Lisa got up. Her legs shook. She shuddered and limped away, into the courtyard. I didn’t chase her. What was the point?
Brook draped the blanket over Ashlyn’s shoulders and gently led her away. I sat down on the grass and leaned against the trunk of the apple tree. I was suddenly very tired.
Yu Fong walked over and looked at me. “Happy, Julie Lennart?”
“It’s Olsen,” I told him. “I only pull Lennart out of my pocket for special occasions.”
“I see.”
“Thank you for saving Ashlyn.”
Yu Fong reached for the nearest apple branch and gently pulled it down, studying the fragile blossoms, his inhumanly beautiful face framed by the blooms. Somebody should have taken a picture. It was too pretty.
“Of course, now you owe me a favor,” he said.
Jerk. No, you know what, forget it. He wasn’t pretty. In fact, I’ve never seen an uglier guy in my whole life.
“The satisfaction of knowing you saved Ashlyn’s life should be enough.”
“But I didn’t just save her life. I saved yours, too,” Yu Fong said.
“I would’ve handled it.”
The look he gave me said loud and clear that he thought I was full of it. “I expect to collect this favor one day.”
“Don’t hold your breath.”
“I imagine I’ll have plenty of opportunities, since you will be spending a lot of time here,” he said.
“What makes you think I’ll be studying here?”
“You’ve made friends,” he said. “You will be worried about them.” He let go of the branch and walked away. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Julie Olsen.”
“Maybe!” I called. “I haven’t decided yet!”
He kept walking.
I sat under the apple tree. Somehow leaving Ashlyn and Brook to his tender mercy didn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
I was pretty sure I could get admitted into this school. It wouldn’t be that hard.
I was right. Kate had set me up.
But then again, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing.